In Fire Forged
by OmgImPwned
Summary: In a world where modern physics and chakra are seemingly irreconcilable, fifteen-year-old Haruno Sakura graduates as a first-grade genin with the year's highest academic scores and is thrust into a world more complex and a lot less nice than she would have thought at first. AU. Volume one of a planned trilogy. Ch 8, Ignition 1.
1. Spark 1

**Author's note:**

In Fire Forged now has a blog, which can be found at infireforged dot wordpress dot com. There you will be able to find things like progress updates on the story and various lore and world-building posts reminiscent of the in character lore blurbs that are sometimes at the beginnings and ends of the chapters.

Readers should be cautioned that the story may turn fairly dark further in and does not pull its punches. Morality isn't always black and white, the heroes are not invincible and the child-soldiering world of Naruto can be less than pretty when viewed through the lens of unforgiving realism. Mature themes are present, including graphic violence and at times coarse language. Sex _may_ happen, but will in such a case take place "off screen". Shipping _may_ likewise also happen, but ships are not a focus of the story in any way, so don't count on it being a major theme. Listing the trigger warnings that don't apply might be easier than listing the ones that do.

That being said, it is not a complete dark-fest of induced audience apathy. Light-hearted moments of humanity can always be found even in the darkest of times, and there is after all always a light at the end of the tunnel.

I would like to take the time to thank my betas, both old and new, for their hard work and effort to make every tiny little piece of the story better. It may be horribly cliché to say such things, but the improvement that they bring is palpable—if you enjoy the story going forward, you owe a large part of that to (in no particular order): rovingpen, rusalka9, Z.Z., Jay-F, Virgo, loonyphoenix and Xelexya.

Enjoy reading! Certainly I have enjoyed writing.

* * *

It is my opinion that the rapidly changing political landscape has transformed the nature of warfare forever. Wars will no longer be fought by individual city states or minor alliances, they will be fought by _nations_ commanding conscript armies that far surpass any we've seen before in terms of size, training and discipline. We _must_ commit to a similarly unified organizational structure; only if we act as one will we be able to reach an agreement with the new government that will allow us to retain any semblance of political control and independence. Unfortunately, my lords, times have changed.

— _Uchiha Madara's first address to the summit hosted by the Uchiha and Senju clans that would later lead to the founding of Konoha._

* * *

_Heroes don't exist. And if they did, I wouldn't be one of them._

* * *

_Summer, 1021 AS (After the Sage)_

* * *

When I woke, the sun was already shining in my face. Lying there, all tangled up in my bedsheets, it took a few sleepy moments staring at the angle of the sunlight before an ugly feeling began to form in my gut.

I turned in the bed and looked at my clock. A quarter to eight. It should have gone off more than an hour ago. The alarm must have broken. Again. I was going to be late. Again.

_Damn._

I tore up out of bed, already reaching for the clothes I'd dropped in a tangle yesterday. Beginning to pull them on, I half-jumped, half-staggered out of my room and down the corridor to the bathroom for an extremely abbreviated morning routine.

Half a minute later I stormed back to my room to grab my equipment belts and strap them on. One around my waist, one around my right thigh. Kunai, shuriken, regular scrolls, _my_ scrolls, bandages, various other odds and ends I had no intention of sorting through right now.

I was a bit light on the scrolls, so I stomped over to the small workshop I had in the corner of the room to rummage around for a few that were done, nearly knocking over a few bottles of my homebrew chakra ink in my haste. I winced, forcing a bit of calm into my frantic search. Those were precious.

After a few moments, I stepped back. I had enough. No time to hide weapons on my body. The jounin examiner no doubt wouldn't appreciate a half-assed effort.

Pulling a hand through my hair, I miserably glanced about the room for a few more precious seconds. Anything I'd forgotten, anything I'd missed? Nothing caught my immediate attention.

I sped out the door and stormed down the hallway, right past my mom and dad who were taking their morning coffee in the kitchen. Dad grunted, sounding bemused, but his eyes didn't leave his newspaper. Mom just stared at me as I started firmly tying on my steel-studded sandals as fast as I could.

"In a hurry, dear?" she asked, frowning. "I thought you passed the examination yesterday." A faint smile touched her lips. "Top of the class, too."

My fingers slipped and I forced myself to slow down and pay attention to the knots. Much as I had to hurry, it wouldn't do to break my neck because of a loose sandal slipping off and sending me tumbling to my death at some inopportune time. Surely they wouldn't fail me if I was just a minute late...?

"I didn't pass the individual jounin trial yet, mum," I said and began tying my other sandal. "I'm first grade, remember? We qualify for having a jounin come and see if they want to be our sensei. So unless I want to be dumped into a lower grade team with a chuunin sensei-"

"Yes, yes..." my father said and waved a hand at me, his eyes not leaving his newspaper. "Ninja stuff. We know. Don't be home late."

I finished and stood up, staring at him for a timeless moment. My mother frowned, glancing between the two of us. Dad didn't look up. I wanted to tell him that I was fifteen now, that he should stop coddling me and not disapprove whenever I did something he didn't like. But I didn't have the time, right now.

"Yeah," I said instead. "Ninja stuff. See you later."

Without waiting for a reply, I opened the door and stepped outside.

Much of older downtown Konoha was tiered, walkways crisscrossing over the streets at lower levels, most of the higher levels being built into buildings that narrowed as they grew taller, sacrificing width to provide for the walkways. The apartment building my family lived in was one of those, meaning that stepping onto the walkway right outside and leaning on the railing had you looking right down at the street below. I'd always liked it; it provided for a pleasant feeling of vertical space.

There were also a lot of trees. Konoha was built in the middle of a very large forest, after all, and the First Hokage had been adamant that the city's origins show in its design. In the denser parts of the city, most of the ground was shaded a light, mottled green as bright sunlight penetrated the leaves above. When they said that Konoha was the village hidden in the leaves, they meant it.

Drawing chakra together and shaping it, I formed a hand seal and used the body flicker technique to get up to the nearest roof, causing the world to blur around me briefly as I sped upwards until the technique stopped me again. It provided near-instantaneous short-range travel, but it wasn't quite instant - even if sometimes it could sure look like it. If you blinked, it would be easy to mistake a person body flickering short distances for them simply vanishing and then reappearing somewhere else a moment later.

I glanced around the roof, feeling a little nervous that I might be stopped. I was a genin now, so I was technically authorized to travel on the rooftops unimpeded (this being by far the fastest way to get around the more densely populated parts of Konoha for any ninja). But I hadn't gotten my forehead protector marking my rank yet, so I hadn't really been formally promoted either. It was bending the rules a little, but it would have to do.

I started running along the roof, channeling chakra through my soles to latch on with my feet and give me solid footing. When I neared the five meter gap to the next building over, I expelled a tightly controlled burst of chakra out of my feet just as I jumped, giving me just enough of a boost to soar across the street instead of splatting on the walkways below. I landed running and laughed out loud; the feeling was exhilarating. I'd done this before, in class with instructors, but doing it on my own to actually get somewhere in a hurry was an entirely different feeling.

When I neared the campus of the Konoha Ninja Academy, I had to go back to running down on the streets. The area was flatter, culled of tall and tangled buildings and full of clear lines of sight. The enormous area dedicated to the education of Konoha's livelihood lay close to the center of Konoha, not too far from the Administration Building which housed the Council chambers and the Hokage tower.

The Hokage monument, too, was visible from campus; four huge faces of the previous and current Hokage carved into the mountain against which Konoha lay nestled. The view was quite spectacular. It was the one that was shown in most of the tourist brochures; pictures taken on sunny days, looking from the Fountain of Fire down the campus main street and straight onto the Administration Building with the Hokage monument as dramatic backdrop.

Very pretty, I was sure. I was too out of breath by now to really pay attention.

I was increasingly aware of time passing as I pelted down the streets past lower-year students who hadn't quite finished the year yet. When I finally arrived in the auditorium, the wall clock hanging outside the door was saying a minute to eight.

I put a hand on the door and took a moment to catch my breath.

"Thank the sage," I wheezed and brushed a lock of loose hair from my face. "I made it."

I waited a few more seconds just to get my breathing back under control before I opened the door and stepped inside. The lecture room was almost full. It could hold fifty people, and there were around forty in here. A row of people stood on the front podium; probably the prospective jounin team leaders.

I glanced around and found the girl I was looking for sitting halfway up, holding an empty seat beside her.

Yamanaka Ino. She was, like me and everybody else in here, a graduate from one of the first-grade classes. In addition to that, she was the sole heiress to the Yamanaka ninja clan, considered one of the most eligible young ninja in Konoha, scandalous darling of all the tabloids and rather pretty to boot. On top of all that, her clan trust meant she was very comfortable financially speaking.

She was also what passed for my best friend of nine years.

She grinned when she saw me and waved. I nodded and began making my way up the stairs at the side of the room. On the way up, I passed Naruto, who grinned and bobbed his head at me in greeting, his blonde hair shifting. I awkwardly smiled back. Uzumaki Naruto was friendly, strong, maybe a little silly, and wasn't known as the smartest of guys, but he came off all the better for it. He was well liked, I guess, if a bit of a mischievous prankster at times; decently indecent, if you would.

To his side sat his other half, Uchiha Izanami. She was pale, with long black hair and delicate features permanently set in a sour scowl. She glared at me as I passed, and I did my best to ignore her. Izanami glared at _everyone_, except maybe not Naruto, sometimes, and even when with him she did glare most of the time. I wasn't even sure her face was capable of doing anything but glaring or frowning; she'd been doing nothing else for so long that the ability must have completely disappeared.

If Ino was considered _one_ of the most eligible ninja in Konoha, Izanami was without a doubt _the_ most eligible, and also the one who was the farthest out of reach, if only because she would probably castrate anybody who even suggested anything of the sort, and _people could tell that about her_. Strangely enough, this only seemed to egg the attention on. People were absurd, sometimes. Maybe it was just that she was famous, and not just in Konoha or the Land of Fire, but internationally.

She was 'the last Uchiha', sole survivor of the Uchiha Massacre and Konoha's only remaining natural wielder of the Sharingan, as well as the little sister of the internationally notorious mass murderer Uchiha Itachi, who had carried out the Massacre. She was extremely talented, beautiful, smart (to hear others tell it, at least), and an absolutely horrible person. If I hadn't occasionally seen her accidentally look slightly human when she was with Naruto, I would have pegged her for a complete sociopath.

As it was, I only had her pegged as a near-complete sociopath.

I had been so shocked that I'd thrown up after my first full-contact bout with Izanami, back in the early days of first grade after I'd been entered due to my uncanny chakra control. It wasn't a good memory to be thinking about. She had trounced me so thoroughly within half a minute that I'd been left shaking for months after whenever I had to fight full-contact. She hadn't wounded me badly. Not physically, because that hadn't been allowed. But she'd done everything she could to make me taste defeat, to smear her unassailable superiority all over my face. And she _was_ good. I did have to give her that.

Being completely honest with myself, I loathed that self-absorbed, condescending, ruthless, stuck-up, inhuman, emotionless, automaton bitch. How Naruto could even stand being around her all the time... I didn't understand it. Perhaps he did it out of pity. She had no other friends. I felt bad for her future teammate, whoever it would be. Teammate, singular, because I felt sure that she and Naruto were probably going to be on a team together; he was practically the only person I knew who didn't seem to mind her constant company.

I finally reached Ino and sat down beside her. She leaned in close to me.

"You're late!" she whispered.

"Am not. They haven't even started yet."

"They're about to. Soon. I think you're the last to arrive."

I frowned. "Don't rub it in."

"What took you so long?"

"Overslept," I replied shortly, faintly embarrassed.

She grinned. "You did look pretty tired yesterday, after all that testing."

"Completely crushed," I confirmed sheepishly. "What a day."

"You need to work on your stamina!" She hit me lightly on the shoulder, teasing. I took the blow in good humor; it was well deserved. Ino knew I despised taijutsu training and working out.

An amiable silence fell between us.

I took the time to grab a closer look at the jounin who stood lined up down front. Our instructor, Umino Iruka, stood in front of them, his back turned to the room as he discussed something with them. Of the rest, there were two whom I immediately recognized with a faint chill from fame alone.

One was Sarutobi Asuma, the son of the Third Hokage, who had once belonged to the Twelve Guardians, the Fire Daimyo's personal elite ninja guard. I would absolutely not mind being assigned to _his_ team, that was for sure.

The other one I recognized was Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan, Konoha's famous Copy Ninja, who was even more renowned than Sarutobi. As he was the only remaining Sharingan wielder in Konoha, one could say I had a pretty good idea as to who Izanami's assigned team leader would be. He was probably only here specifically to be her sensei.

I doubted I'd ever be assigned to someone like those two. I wasn't from an important clan and I had no bloodlines or special abilities to speak of. My gaze swept speculatively over the rest of the jounin, but I couldn't pick out any other familiar faces. Iruka exchanged a few last words with them, and turned around to face us.

"Students!" he called out. "Genin!"

A hush fell over the lecture room.

Iruka was beaming proudly as he looked out over his assembled students. "First of all, I would like to congratulate all forty-two of you on passing the exams yesterday. Not a single first-grade student failed this year."

There was a low murmur of thanks in response.

"You are here because you are the best Konoha has to offer!" Iruka continued. "You are here because-"

I sighed. It was the same spiel as always; he often went on about our virtues and our indomitable will of fire. Very inspiring the first few times you heard it, but there was so little variation that I quickly stopped paying my fullest attention, instead just keeping track of the general gist of what he was saying just in case anything new and relevant should pop up.

Ino yawned aside at me in an exaggerated fashion, her hand hiding it from the front of the room, and I grinned back in bemused half-agreement. At least Iruka seemed honestly proud, as if he really _meant_ what he was saying.

Finally, he came to something interesting; I perked up.

"Assembled behind me are fourteen jounin, who will personally test you and your capabilities to determine whether they will agree to act as the leader of your team. If they do not agree, a chuunin leader will be chosen for your team instead. I will now call out the teams as they were finalized last night; please step forward when your name is called and follow your jounin out of the room when your entire team has joined you."

He drew out a scroll from his vest pocket and started reading out loud.

"Team one! Jounin, Takahara Yumi."

A woman stepped forward. As Iruka called out names, three students collected in front of her, and then left with her. Then team two was called out. Slowly, the room began emptying of students as jounin took their teams and led them out to be tested.

As more and more teams were called out, I began to fidget nervously. I started biting my nail, then noticed I was doing it and stopped. Ten seconds later I was at it again. I sat on my hands.

Ino noticed and smirked. "At least you have the excitement of not knowing which team you'll be on. _I'm_ just gonna be on a team with Chouji and Shikamaru."

The tradition of putting Yamanaka, Nara and Akimichi ninja on the same teams went back generations. The three clan's signature abilities were highly complementary, and apparently the Administration went wholeheartedly in for the principle of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

I glanced at her. "Maybe I don't like excitement much."

Her eyes gleamed with humor. "Then you chose the wrong career."

I shrugged, conceding the point. Didn't mean I didn't have a bad case of butterflies. These were the people I'd probably be spending the next few _years_ with. It was _important_ who they were, and I wasn't getting a say. Of course I was nervous.

Team six finished being called up and Iruka called out, "Team Seven! Jounin: Hatake Kakashi."

I glanced up curiously. Kakashi had stepped forward.

"Haruno Sakura!" Iruka called.

"That's you!" Ino muttered excitedly. "You get Kakashi, damn you! I'm so envious!"

I sat frozen, barely even remembering to be stunned by the fact that they'd picked the _Copy Ninja_ as my potential sensei. This could only mean one thing.

_Oh no. No. They're just not going to do this to me._

Slowly, slightly in a daze as my mind raced aimlessly back and forth, achieving nothing, my body - bless the thing - acted for me on pure reflex. I stood up and started walking down the aisle to stand before Kakashi. Perhaps there was hope yet. Perhaps they _wouldn't_ go with the obvious choice.

When I arrived, Iruka called out the next name. "Uzumaki Naruto!"

My shoulders sagged slightly.

I should have been happy, really. Naruto would be a great teammate, I was sure. Instead, I had to keep myself from wincing. This only hammered the fact in deeper, like a nail scraping against a raw nerve. Naruto came to stand beside me and shot me a grin. I just closed my eyes briefly, tension wracking my body. I noticed that I was holding my breath.

And Iruka called out the last name with a finality that sank the nail in as far as it would go. "Uchiha Izanami!"

And there it was.

I breathed out deeply, opening my eyes again. The tension left me, and I felt kind of empty. Almost floaty. It was an odd kind of release, knowing instead of suspecting that I was completely fucked. Uchiha Izanami was my genin teammate.

I heard her footsteps approaching from behind, and Kakashi spoke. "Let's go. We'll talk en route."

His voice was surprisingly normal for an internationally recognized ninja. I didn't know what I had been expecting. He turned and left. We followed in silence, and I began gathering my thoughts together again. No matter what, I had to be coherent now. It wasn't easy. I was worn out after weeks of preparation for the exams, as if I'd gathered all the energy I had together and spent it, and now I was being called upon to continue spending when what I really needed to do was recharge.

_Better get used to it_, I told myself.

In the hallway outside, Kakashi spoke again, turning his head slightly over his shoulder to look at us. "We're going to training ground seventeen, outside the city. But first, we'll catch a break somewhere and have a chat."

He had his hands in his pockets, his posture was slightly slouched and he shuffled more than walked. I wasn't falling for it. You didn't get to the place he was by being a lazy bum. But appearing to be a lazy bum, I reckoned, could actually have its advantages, cause enemies to underestimate you unconsciously. I was determined that I, at least, wouldn't be making _that_ mistake.

We walked outside and found a nearby spot where a few wooden benches had been placed in the shade of a large oak. Kakashi leaned against the tree. Naruto promptly sat down on a bench, his bearing casual and at ease. Izanami didn't sit, but remained standing, her arms crossed, wearing one of her eternal frowns. I compromised, leaning myself on the edge of a bench and crossing my arms in turn.

I looked at Kakashi, who was peering at us and hadn't said anything yet. It gave me the time to study my potential sensei closer. He had white hair despite being at most middle-aged and wore a dark blue bandana which covered most of his face. He had his forehead protector on at an angle so it covered up his left eye. All that left ominously little of his face visible.

I knew that through some circumstance or other, he'd wound up with a transplanted Sharingan as his left eye during the Third Great Ninja War. The eye left him able to learn and make use of the techniques of his opponents even in the middle of combat, and had caused him to be of immense value to Konoha since the fall of the Uchiha clan.

The Sharingan wasn't just a tactical asset, but a strategic one. Users remembered the techniques they copied, and could write them down and teach them to others in time. The Uchiha Massacre had almost completely eliminated Konoha's unique advantage in that area. There was only Kakashi and Izanami left.

After a few awkward seconds, Kakashi clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "All right. I thought the higher-ups had given up on ever getting me to tutor a genin squad, but apparently there's still a single optimist left somewhere in the Administration. So we'll give it a try, why don't we?"

That... sounded a little ominous. I glanced at Izanami and Naruto. Their expressions hadn't changed much.

"For starters," Kakashi continued, "I thought we could introduce ourselves, get to know each other."

"We've been in the same class for _eight years_," Izanami said shortly. "And we all know _you_."

Kakashi glanced at her. "Okay. But that doesn't mean _I_ know _you_." He tilted his head slightly at her. "Why don't you start? Tell us about yourself, what you like, dislike, what ambitions you have."

Izanami didn't react for a second, her face frozen. I averted my gaze to the ground and had to keep myself from smirking.

"I don't see what's so important about what I like or dislike," she said. "Eventually I'm going to kill Uchiha Itachi." She shrugged with her arms still crossed. "Not much else to it."

Kakashi stared at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable - and not just because of the mask. "Fair enough."

"Drama queen," Naruto muttered under his breath, loud enough for all to hear.

Izanami just glanced at him, rolling her eyes. He grinned shamelessly in response.

"Alright," Kakashi said and looked at Naruto. "You next."

Naruto frowned thoughtfully and bit his lip for a moment, then glanced around at all of us with a slight, self-conscious grin.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I guess I'm not really that heavy on the ambitions. Life's a day to day thing, you know? I aim on getting by." He cleared his throat. "I like ramen-"

"You mean 'worship'," Izanami muttered under her breath. My eyes narrowed. Was that... a joke? Gods.

Naruto glanced at her. "I was talking, Izzie."

Izanami scowled at him, and my lip twitched.

"Okay..." Naruto continued. "I like ramen... uh. Probably a lot of other stuff too. Nothing's coming up right now. I hate homework and quizzes and chakra control exercises." He glanced significantly at Izanami who'd cleared her throat just then. "Even though I have to do them. A _lot_. I know."

Kakashi's eyes had narrowed thoughtfully at that, glancing between the two. "Okay," he said, and nodded at me.

Even though I'd had some time already to think, it caught me off guard. I hesitated.

_Just keep it simple, down to earth, and truthful. Right._

"I'm Haruno Sakura. I want to... to..." I hesitated sheepishly. "This is going to sound stupid, but I really just want to help people out and... generally make the world _better_."

Kakashi just nodded frankly, to my surprise. I purposefully didn't look at Naruto and Izanami. I could just imagine Izanami's expression, and this was for Kakashi's benefit, anyway.

"I like... applied seal theory, and tests and quizzes," I continued quickly. "And I don't like sleeping in and wasting my time."

_Very deep, Sakura._

Well, it would have to do.

"Good," Kakashi said. I wasn't sure if he was referring to me, or to the whole process in general. He looked the three of us over, almost curiously. "Izanami, Sakura. You two are the top ranking graduates, this year, with the same average. And Naruto, you're... well, you'd know what I'm talking about."

Naruto nodded in a clipped sort of way, looking a little uncomfortable for a brief moment.

I frowned. _What's that all about?_

"Let's just say I have every reason to be counting on the three of you not to disappoint me," Kakashi finished off. "Let's see how well you do surprise."

He disappeared, kicking up a few leaves.

It took me almost half a second to realize that he'd managed to prepare a body flicker without us realizing it. He_ hadn't moved a finger._

Izanami disappeared, too.

I darted to where Kakashi had been leaning against the tree. There were still traces of chakra that hadn't dissipated, where the technique had displaced air from in front of him to behind him in order to facilitate his movement. I could _feel_ it on my skin. The direction... roughly... I turned and looked at a nearby rooftop.

It was one of the weaknesses of the standard body flicker technique, due to it being so expensive in chakra. If you knew it was being formed, it was easy to predict its trajectory and destination point if that was anywhere near you and use that to strike against your enemy as he appeared. Likewise, it was easy to follow for a short period, as long as you knew where its origin point was.

Naruto was already forming the hand seal. I did likewise, feeding the technique the necessary amount of chakra. I arrived a moment behind him.

Kakashi was waiting there, with Izanami. It had taken me maybe two or three seconds to follow along. Same for Naruto.

I got the sense that Kakashi was smirking ever so slightly, behind his mask. "Stragglers get the boot," he said, and disappeared again. This time I could see where he'd gone; another nearby rooftop.

By the time we'd arrived a second later, he was already gone again, running this time, jumping from the rooftop to a tree-branch and then down to the ground.

I followed as best I could, wind tearing at my hair as we traveled. It wasn't a question of perception, but simply raw speed. I had a sense he was taking it easy, but I was already tiring a little bit. I could feel how I hadn't really recovered all of my chakra and energy from my morning sprint. I had a feeling the rest of the day wouldn't be any better.

We zipped across Konoha, leaving the campus area behind in the first few minutes and returning to the rooftops where we had the clearest lines of sight. I did my best to conserve energy, skipping the difficult or downright impossible bits with body flickers and otherwise sticking just to running and jumping with regular chakra boosts. Occasionally I'd catch glances of Naruto and Izanami, out of the corner of my eye or up ahead of me.

Izanami was staying close on Kakashi's heels and was making it look almost _easy_, and Naruto was throwing out body flickers like they were candy and chakra was free. But I knew he had larger than usual chakra reserves - definitely the largest in class, I thought - and could probably afford to do that. Some people just got lucky that way. I was on the low end of the chakra pool, but conversely, at least my control was _very_ good. When I body flickered, I did so _efficiently_, wasting as little chakra as I could possibly get away with.

I could only hope that it would be enough, for now. I renewed my effort, keeping up with the others.

I noticed with a small feeling of dread that we were indeed heading towards training ground seventeen outside the city, as Kakashi had mentioned. It was pretty far outside of the city, if I recalled the maps I'd seen correctly. I decided not to think too much about it, concentrating on the moment.

Step, jump, control your breath, body flicker, run, jump, turn, jump, land, breath, body flicker.

It was ceaseless. Just a long sequence of singular movement. I sank into it, just going with the flow, feeling my body as it slowly wore out, aches making themselves known, muscles starving for oxygen, chakra coils burning faintly as I strained to pull out the chakra I needed for every augmented movement and every body flicker.

We passed through an open gate in the seal-engraved walls encircling and shielding the city and out into the large, grassy area of cleared forest around the wall. We were outside of Konoha, now. We zipped across the cleared area, and onward into the forest proper. Training ground seventeen lay somewhere ahead of us.

I was falling behind, slowly but steadily. Kakashi was about two hundred meters ahead of me, glimpsed only sometimes through the trees. Izanami had fallen behind him as well, maybe a hundred and fifty meters ahead of me. Naruto was front runner now, still keeping up with Kakashi and from what I saw still blowing chakra on an excess of body flickers exactly like he had in the beginning.

_Just how much chakra does he _have..._?_ I thought numbly.

We crossed the borders of the training ground, leaping over an electrified fence which was mostly just intended to keep out wild animals and common civilians. I was beginning to really wear out. I could feel it. I'd gone from the almost pleasant burning feeling of exhaustion you got from vigorous exercise to the stone-heavy aching feeling you got when you simply pushed yourself too far.

But we were almost there; the training ground was only so large. Kakashi had to stop sometime soon.

_Just a little farther._

As we headed over the crest of a hill and down into a smaller valley, I could see a river up ahead, next to a small clearing. It was the only noticeable feature around. Half a kilometer, maybe. I could only hope.

I thought I maybe still had a bit of chakra to spare. It was hard to tell in the heat of the moment, but while it hurt when I drew on my chakra, it wasn't downright excruciating yet. I wasn't all empty. I ran for a hundred more meters, gathering myself, then went for a series of body flickers in quick succession, the forest whizzing past me in separate blurs. It brought me over the river and into the clearing proper. Kakashi was waiting in the middle of it, by a series of small wooden poles. Naruto was already there and Izanami arrived by them a few moments later.

I half-ran, half-staggered the rest of the way. When I finally arrived, I fell to my knees, heaving for breath. I didn't care if it was undignified. My throat tasted of metal and it almost hurt to breathe. Izanami, at least, looked rather out of breath as well, strands of hair plastered to her sweaty face. She didn't even bother removing them. I was a little surprised at that. She was supposed to be the one who was perfect at everything, wasn't she?

A glance at Naruto, however, shocked me slightly. He was red-faced, sure, and panting a little bit. But he was standing, and his limbs weren't shaking from exhaustion. He looked... exercised, not crushed.

I noticed that Kakashi was looking us over, once again. When his eye fell on Naruto, it narrowed slightly as if confirming some suspicion or prediction.

_Something is going on there_, I thought raggedly. _But now is really not the time to wonder about it._

"So!" Kakashi began, after giving us a few moments. "That's it for the warm-up." He crossed his arms, and noted mildly while looking at me, "I believe I mentioned that stragglers would get the boot."

My breath caught. If anybody had been a straggler, it was me.

"It's good I was lying about that, isn't it?" he continued cheerfully.

_...That bastard._

Yet I breathed freely again, fighting down a small spell of dizziness.

"I did want to see how far you were willing to push yourself, though," he went on. "Today, after all, has only just begun. Allow me to at least tell you, if you're feeling a little intimidated, that no team has ever passed my genin test before. Quite a few have tried, these past years."

I was too out of breath to feel offended or even terrified. Clearly, the man was insane. I didn't know who the optimist was, the one who Kakashi had theorized might exist in the Administration, but right now I wanted to _kill _that person.

"Someone's gotta be the first."

I glanced up. Naruto had spoken. He grinned faintly. "Might as well be us, I mean."

Kakashi looked at him. "Not the first. The last team which passed this test, as far as I am aware, was mine. And before that, it was the Sannin. I like to think of it as a tradition worth continuing."

Which meant Kakashi's team, which had been led by the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, before he became Hokage, and the team which had been led by the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and had later become known as the three Sannin, who were arguably three of the most powerful ninja Konoha had ever produced.

I was beginning to feel a little out of my depth, here.

Naruto shrugged. "So we've just gotta top them, right?"

Kakashi blinked.

I stared at Naruto, aware that my mouth was hanging slightly open and not doing anything about it almost on purpose.

_Right, yes_, I thought. _We're just gonna go ahead and top three of the most legendary ninja Konoha has ever produced. Right. Of course._

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Izanami was looking at me. She noticed me noticing, shot me a small, cold glare, then looked back up at Kakashi. My mouth closed in a snap.

"Just tell us what the test is," she said shortly.

Kakashi, still staring at Naruto, who seemed oblivious to the reactions he was getting, tore his gaze away and glanced at Izanami.

"Right," he began. "It's actually very simple." He held up one hand. From it dangled two small, round bells. He glanced from them to us. "There are two bells. There are three of you. The person who doesn't get a bell, gets the boot."

My mouth fell slightly open again. I looked frantically between Naruto and Izanami. They were both sharing a meaningful glance. Then their gazes fell on me for a moment and Naruto's turned away, almost guiltily.

My stomach sank, and I slowly swallowed.

_Damn._

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

On the face of it, the nature of chakra seems fundamentally absurd.

The gulf between modern physics as we know them, and the so-called chakra sciences, has yet to close. While theories abound, some less far-flung than others, the general consensus is that _something_ is going on in a baser level of reality than we have thus far managed to uncover empirically, and that nobody really knows what that something is, and that if any ninja do, then—as is common for their kind—they are keeping those secrets to themselves.

The five basic elemental chakra natures of fire, earth, wind, water and lightning have, as far as we know, no discovered basis in the laws of reality. Fire is simply the gaseous product of exothermic combustion. Earth is a mixture of common minerals. Wind is the flow of gases. Water is nothing but hydrogen and oxygen. Lightning is an electrical discharge.

Often, elements can produce effects that may seem intuitively sound to the layman, but are completely unrelated or unrealistic in actuality (winds that cut, lightning that grants penetrative power, and so forth). Note that this does not prevent them from working. The reason for this dissonance is not known, but seems, strange as it sounds, to correlate to commonly held preconceptions in society a thousand years ago, when these abilities first began to appear in the historical record (for more on this hypothesis, see this issue's article on p. 36, "The Sage: Myth or Messiah? A look at the origin of modern history").

There are further chakra sub-elements, consisting of mixtures of basic elements. Whether these are predetermined 'elements' or a fundamentally separate emergent phenomenon is not certain, since often certain bloodlines or other inherent abilities seem to be necessary for their use. The most famous example of this would be the First Hokage's bloodline-restricted element, the Wood element, purportedly combining earth and water.

It is not known whether there is a limit on how many distinct chakra sub-elements there truly are. It should be noted that there are rumored cases of different users combining the same two basic elements in different ways to produce two markedly different end results. There may be an endless variety, limited only by the imagination.

It is strange that we empirically know so little about how chakra-based abilities work in reality, even with plenty of access to the phenomena through hired ninja or proficient researchers. It is safe to say, though, that while much is known about chakra's workings within the context of its own domain, there is still a fundamental breakthrough waiting to happen that will unify the two separate realms.

This special issue is dedicated to exploring the strange contradictions and wonders of the world of chakra. Read on to find out more.

—_Yamagato Ando, "Editor-in-Chief's Introduction", p. 2, Science Illustrated Magazine Issue 97 - "The World of Chakra"  
_

* * *

As a general rule, reviews make authors happy. As a specific rule, reviews make _me_ ecstatic. Click that button. Write those words on your mind. You know you want to.


	2. Spark 2

Where did chakra come from? Why does it work like it does? Why the sudden and baffling appearance of the intelligent animal races in the archaeological record? And from whence came the nine tailed beasts? The answers to all of these questions can be found with the Sage of the Six Paths.

Legend, you say! Stories! The Sage is a myth, a make-believe messiah, an expression of cultural need in a time of suffering and despair. Hogwash! There is ample evidence of his existence, such as the great upheaval that took place a thousand years ago when the Sage is believed to have lived.

All known archeological remnants of pre-Sage civilization indicate a complete lack of knowledge concerning modern methods of chakra manipulation. The best known early references to chakra having other uses than knowledge and control of self, as in ancient Kriya Yoga techniques, are millennia old preserved scrolls in the possession of the Natama Monks - the oldest of which dates to 0-10 AS! Clearly, the Sage brought us the ability to manipulate chakra, and with that he brought us the modern world of ninja and samurai.

The Sage, it is said, tamed the legendary ten-tailed beast, known throughout the world by many names; Khonsu, Chang'e, and here in the elemental nations, the Juubi. The Sage became the first and strongest Jinchuuriki, and from the Juubi's incredible power he created nine lesser tailed beasts. But there are stories of him that supposedly date to _before_ that event. I propose that the Sage was noteworthy due to something else before he tamed the Juubi, and that 'something else' was the thing that first raised the Sage above normal men and into the province of Godhood.

Enter into this equation the legends of his Rinnegan eyes, and an answer begins to suggest itself.

— _Kanazawai Miyagi, "Changer of Worlds", Excerpt of Introduction._

* * *

_You ceased being children the moment you passed your exams._

* * *

"You can start whenever you feel ready," Kakashi said. "I'll be waiting."

He body flickered halfway across the clearing and pulled out a book, starting to read, his stance easy and relaxed.

Izanami frowned, staring at him. "Are you kidding me?"

"What...?" Naruto muttered, glancing at Kakashi.

"He's reading porn. _Jiraiya's_ porn."

"What, that Icha-Icha stuff you see in the corner stores?" Naruto asked. "That's ballsy. I think I like him already."

_She can _see_ that?_ I thought. Kakashi must have been at least fifty meters away. I looked at Izanami and saw the crimson of her activated Sharingan eyes. In each eye there were two small black tomoe dots on a background of mottled, stripy dark red that consumed the rest of the eye.

_Telescopic vision or incredible eyesight_, I thought._ That's not in the books. Then again, I suppose that's a footnote compared to all the rest._

I shook my head. Right now we had a test to solve, and something was wrong; the facts didn't fit.

"Let's get on with it," Izanami said.

"Yeah," Naruto said.

"Hey-! Wait!", I said, but they were already speeding off towards either side of Kakashi. Naruto body flickered and Izanami ran. They moved in from both sides of Kakashi. He didn't move, or even glance up from his book. I didn't have time to intervene, and I was still too out of breath to do anything anyways.

"Damn," I said, putting my hand to my head. "Damn, damn, damn. Think. _Think_."

_This doesn't make any sense._

I looked up and came to a decision. I would wait for an opportune time. If I was right, and I damn well _ought_ to be, it would come.

Izanami drew the two wakizashi strapped to her back. From what I knew, they were her preferred weapons, though she knew her way around most bladed weapons. Naruto, meanwhile, just clenched his fists tighter. He used few weapons, and nothing more complex than plain shuriken and kunai.

And then there wasn't time to ponder any more. The two engaged Kakashi in a whirl of fists and blades, and he made fighting them look like the easiest thing in the world. I couldn't help but be impressed; I knew jounin were good-any proper jounin could take a single team of fresh genin without trouble. It was another thing to see it with my own eyes. Naruto and Izanami were both incredibly good; they were two of the best taijutsu fighters this year - far above my level, certainly - but it didn't seem to matter so much, right now.

They were both darting about Kakashi in a complicated combination of thrusts, jabs, kicks, jumps and dodges, attacking and trying to pressure him, but he didn't _look_ pressured. Not a single hit was landing. He was switching between languid, easy movements and blurred bursts of speed as he sabotaged their efforts, directing their attacks at one another or throwing their balance when he wasn't where they'd expected him to be a moment ago.

He still held his book in one hand, and, while he was ducking under a high kick from Naruto, he turned a page.

_Wow. He's still reading._

Without warning, he dropped his book, stepped to the side of one of Izanami's attacks and, with a blur of motion, he was holding her by an arm, putting a kunai to her throat. I barely had time to smirk before she disappeared in a puff of smoke, a medium-sized boulder crashing to the ground in her stead. Naruto began a technique as if Izanami's disappearance had been his cue. Half a second later Kakashi exploded and reappeared twenty meters to the left. Grass rustled around Naruto and he turned towards Kakashi, a blast of wind blasting forth from him, tearing up dirt and grass.

I frowned. _A wind technique? But we haven't learned elemental techniques!_

A ball of fire swept in from the side of the clearing. I just barely had time to realize what was happening and throw up my arms to cover my face. I felt a blistering heat on my skin and then the shockwave hit with a deafening thunder, making me stumble back.

Blinking, I lowered my arm, to see smoke and flame billowing from a large crater in the middle of the clearing. Small lumps of dirt and grass still pattered down here and there, trailing wisps of smoke. Kakashi was off to the other side of the clearing now, brushing off his book with a worried look.

_That was a combined wind-fire technique_, I thought. _They're already that good with their elemental affinities? They-they must have practiced that for _years_!_

Elemental affinities had only been touched upon lightly at the academy. I had a fairly strong basic earth affinity, and a far weaker water affinity, but they remained uncultivated - learning the basics of an affinity was supposed to be _extremely_ difficult and absorbing.

_Obviously that hasn't held _them_ back._

Izanami jogged up to where Naruto had retreated. They exchanged a few words and shot guarded glances at Kakashi; there wasn't a scratch on him while Naruto was rubbing his ribs sorely and Izanami was drooping, breathing heavily.

Kakashi took a step forward and they both took a step back. This just seemed to encourage him, and he began walking towards them.

_Now is my chance_, I thought.

I body flickered in between Kakashi and them, triggered a kunai with an explosive tag attached, and threw it in the air. It exploded ten meters above me and Kakashi stopped walking and glanced up. This gave me the time I needed to flick open a pocket on the back of my belt and let a small scroll fall to the ground behind me, hidden by my legs.

Slowly, carefully, I took a small, shuffling step backwards and stepped hard on the scroll, pushing it out of sight into the soft grass. I made sure to keep my gaze firmly on Kakashi, and gulped-I would look like I was intimidated. Fair enough. I was.

I sent out a pulse of chakra from my feet and felt it take. It didn't take much; I could easily keep it up for a while even when I was running this low. I kept it running, very, very carefully keeping the level of chakra I was putting out stable.

A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead.

I pulled two kunai from my belt, one of them tied to a length of chakra-conducting metal wire. My arms felt like lead, my legs were shaking, and I wasn't even sure if it was from exhaustion or sheer terror. Kakashi was watching me with curiosity, giving me time to work. I really hoped Naruto and Izanami were taking this opportunity to retreat and regroup.

Kakashi took a step towards me and I threw the kunai with the chakra-conducting wire at him-my aim was slightly off, but it didn't matter for what I had in mind. Kakashi leaned to one side to let it pass. Half a meter past him the kunai stopped as the wire drew taut. Kakashi turned to strike it away or cut the string and I sent a pulse of chakra down the wire. The kunai detonated, carving out a chunk of earth, setting fire to the grass around it and covering the area around Kakashi in smoke.

_Any moment now,_ I thought, and began concentrating on the area behind me as I recalled it. There'd been a moss-covered tree stump by a large bush...

_Location, destination, relation_, I recited to myself, visualizing it.

The smoke from the explosion cleared and, as I'd expected, Kakashi wasn't there. I turned in a circle, clutching my other kunai tight. I saw that Naruto and Izanami had indeed made themselves scarce, and then stopped, my breath catching. The tip of something was pressed softly into the small of my back.

"A kunai exploding without an explosive tag attached," Kakashi said from behind me. "It's been a while since I saw that trick. Where did you learn how to do it? I know you wouldn't have access to that stuff in the Academy's regular library."

_Thank the sage he didn't just attack me_, I thought. That had been the major weakness of this plan. I bit my lip. I'd expected this, counted on it, but I was still incredibly unnerved.

I suppressed a feeling of disappointment. Somebody else had done the same? And here I thought I was being original. "Figured it out myself," I said, fighting to keep my voice from wavering and the flow of chakra from my feet nice and steady.

"I can see why you've got the top academic score in your year," he said. "But it's not really winning you this fight. It's not going too well, is it?"

"We'll see," I said. I ceased the flow of chakra to my feet, triggered the kunai in my other hand and let it drop. I started forming seals and threw myself forward to get just that much farther away from Kakashi while it mattered, my eyes fixing on the log I'd visualized before. Chakra poured out of me and I felt the pull take hold. Then I was on my hands and knees at the edge of the clearing on a small patch of earth where the log had been lying before.

I fell flat on the ground. And not just because of the sudden burst of exhaustion as I squeezed out chakra I'd only just recovered to perform the substitution technique. I shut my eyes tight and pressed my hands over my ears. I was far too close for my own comfort. If this worked-

A flash of light, the inner side of my eyelids turning bright red-

A clap of thunder shaking my bones and the ground beneath me heaving up-

Barely time to feel elation mixed with fear, and the shock wave tore over me, ripping at my hair and clothes so hard it hurt. I dug my hands into the ground, and then it was over. I lay there, silent, as my ears rang and I processed what had just happened.

_It worked_, I thought, dazed. _It really worked._

I fought myself up onto my elbows, staring at ground zero. I couldn't see much for the billowing smoke. Large chunks of earth were crashing down across the clearing, though I seemed to be safe enough at this distance.

I'd dropped the kunai just to make him let me go, and to force him to get what I considered at least a somewhat safe distance away. I wasn't sure even Kakashi would have escaped unscathed, but it would be hard to wrap my mind around the fact if he hadn't. He was the _Copy Ninja_. And he was nowhere to be seen at all.

No, he was probably all right. Either that, or I'd just managed to literally obliterate my sensei.

But, at least...

"That'll distract him," I said numbly, and started pushing myself to my feet. I hoped Kakashi would take the hint to vanish and give me a little while to track down and talk some sense into Naruto and Izanami.

"What the _fuck_ was that?!" someone yelled.

I jumped and spun. Naruto had stepped out from behind a tree and was staring wide-eyed at where the smoke was just beginning to clear from the crater.

"Get back!" I hissed and ran over to pull him back behind the tree. He continued staring and allowed himself to be dragged. Izanami was behind there, too, peering out, but I barely spared her a glance, continuing a little further into the forest underbrush until we couldn't see the clearing any more when I looked back.

Then I turned around and released Naruto, not surprised to see that Izanami had followed us. Naruto frowned at me, patting his shirt where I'd gripped it. "Was that _you?_"

I nodded. "I just wanted to distract him, buy me some time to talk to _you_."

Both of them were staring at me now, Izanami frowning and Naruto with his mouth open. I shrunk back.

"What?" I asked in a small voice.

"What _was_ that?" Naruto asked.

"A roll of explosive tags," I said quickly. "I made it."

Naruto blinked. "I thought they didn't work right that way."

"They don't," Izanami scoffed. "The fuse timing is too imprecise; by far most of the tags are ruined by the tag that goes off first."

I didn't really know what to say to that, that wouldn't just seem overly arrogant. _I fixed it_, maybe?_ Shut up, it worked_? No. I just shrugged. Naruto opened his mouth, but then closed it again without saying anything after a moment. I took the time to gather my thoughts.

"Look," I said. "We can talk about all that later, right now we need to talk about the test. We need to work together, here."

"Three people working together to get two bells?" Izanami asked snidely. "Who's not getting one?"

"No," I said, relishing the opportunity to say this. "You're being stupid, this is obvious. He said whole teams had passed before, not parts of them. As far as I know, the Sannin are three, not two, so all of us can pass the test. The test isn't about getting the bells. It's something else."

There was silence for a moment as they stared at me again.

"Great, I feel dumb now," Naruto said. "Izanami?"

Izanami said nothing for a moment, frozen in place. Then she crossed her arms and looked away. "It... makes sense."

"Just think about it," I said. "The test has to be something else or it would just be stupid, and Kakashi is not stupid-we'd have no chance getting the bells from a jounin even if we worked together, especially not against someone like him."

"Speak for yourself," Izanami muttered.

I turned to look at her. "I'm not the one who just spent five minutes being slapped around out there," I said before I could even think about it.

Izanami glared at me, crimson eyes furious, and for a moment I thought she was about to attack. Naruto stepped between us and cleared his throat. Izanami clenched her jaw, working it for a second, and then she turned her head away, as if trying to glare a defenseless bush to death.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, my heart pounding in my chest. What in the world had brought me to say that?

"Okay, let's relax," Naruto said after a moment of tense silence. "We all agree that the actual test probably isn't the..." his brows furrowed "...actual test. So we'll have to work together, right?"

"Right," I said with relief.

There was a pause.

"...Right," Izanami grumbled, still looking away.

"So let's figure this out," Naruto said and turned to look at me. I blinked, struck dumb for a moment.

"It's not about brute force..." I began hesitantly, and Naruto nodded. "The first thing he did was exhaust us," I said with more confidence, "He tried to harry us and make us..." my gaze flickered towards Izanami, despite my best efforts, and I continued quickly "... short-tempered. Then we get the actual test, which just seems _designed_ to drive a wedge between us and split us up when what we're actually supposed to do is... work together, somehow. He wouldn't tire us out like that beforehand if we were supposed to have an actual chance against him. The odds would be bad enough without that."

"So the key to passing the test is working together?" Naruto said, sounding doubtful.

I shrugged. "I... don't think it's that simple. But that has to be the level to think on. The more social or abstract aspects, not the martial ones."

"Bullshit," Izanami said, glaring at me. "You just want in because without us you don't stand a chance."

I grit my teeth and willed myself not to respond.

Naruto looked at Izanami. "Relax, will you," he said. "I think she's right. _You_ think she's right." He hesitated a moment, shooting me a funny glance. "And she did just blow up half of the clearing because she wanted to _talk_. Better let her, y'know... talk."

A corner of Izanami's lips turned up ever so slightly, a glimmer of something in her eye. "True," she muttered. Then, she nodded tiredly. "Okay, Naruto. Whatever."

I kept myself from glaring at her and nodded a brief thanks to Naruto.

He grinned. "Whatever. Right. So we want the bells. But not really."

"I think our best bet is to try and get the bells together. Prove we can work together even under adverse conditions and psychological pressure." I glanced at Izanami. "If we _do_ get them, then we can decide who gets the bells then, _if_ that's relevant."

Naruto shrugged. "Okay. I don't have any better ideas. I don't suppose you have any clever ideas as to _how_ we might work together?"

My eyes narrowed as I considered our situation. Izanami was leaning tiredly against a tree and even Naruto looked the worse for wear; if not exhausted, then battered. And my legs were trembling just from the effort of standing up straight.

What _did_ I have?

_What do I have, and how can I use that to get what I want?_

* * *

Half an hour later, I was frantically blundering my way through a faltering series of parries and blows with Kakashi. Naruto came bulldozing in from my left with a barrage of wind techniques that just barely missed me and engaged Kakashi in a frenzy of blows. Izanami followed shortly after in a whirl of kunai and shuriken controlled by chakra wires, sporting a nasty limp and a snarl on her face.

The two were clearly used to fighting together. Naruto kept Kakashi off-balance, on the move, with a never-ending onslaught of powerful blows, and Izanami struck with economical, cold, ruthless precision, leveraging every gap and covering for Naruto's more plainly telegraphed moves. She was down to plain basics by now, having lost both of her wakizashi, one lying broken on the ground somewhere and the other flung off into the forest underbrush.

At least I'd convinced them that if there were a time to go all out, this was it. So we'd taken twenty minutes to rest up, which Kakashi seemed to graciously have allowed us, and then we'd tracked him down and attacked in unison.

The fight was different now than it had been before. Naruto and Izanami were really laying on the pressure and pulling out all the stops, and now I was here too. Kakashi still handled us with what looked like frustrating ease and without even harming us seriously while we by now were doing our honest best to kill him. But he wasn't reading any more, his book forgotten somewhere on the ground. He didn't have time to slack off, he actually had to pay attention to us.

Relieved of the pressure Kakashi had been putting on me, I backed off and took a second to think, my breath huffing and every muscle feeling ready to give out. I was out of explosive kunai and almost out of the regular kind. My last explosive tags, shuriken and chakra wire had been donated to Izanami in the name of the mission. I was too out of sorts to even start _thinking_ about the thousands of ryo of personal equipment I was blowing on this.

This was not going well. The bells were always tantalizingly out of grasp. For minutes now we'd been trying to maneuver Kakashi into confirming that my plan was viable, but we'd had no such luck yet. Only, if we didn't do it first, this could be _dangerous_. Completely, utterly insane and dangerous.

I was incredibly happy mum and dad weren't here to tell me what they thought, because if they had been, I would still be grounded when I turned fifty.

_Well_, I told myself, swallowing on a painfully dry throat. It hurt and tasted a bit like blood. _We're running out of options here. Prioritize._

I backed away toward where the grass was thicker, gathered my chakra, stuck a hand in one of my equipment belts, and fished out what looked like yet another, innocent small scroll. Only not. It was identical to the one I'd used before. I gave my utmost attention to controlling the flow of chakra to my hand. This part was crucial.

Needless to say, Izanami at once noticed my slight movement out of the corner of her eye, and shot me a hard look. I licked dry lips and nodded quickly. Then the glimpse of a moment was over and her full attention was on Kakashi again. She started maneuvering around him, pulling out the last of her now sparse supply of chakra-wired shuriken and throwing them out in wide arcs, seeking to cut off Kakashi's routes of escape. While she was doing that, her fingers and hands flickered in spare moments and chakra began to flare around her as she worked up some fire technique.

I had to admit to being impressed with her performance; in taijutsu and ninjutsu, from a purely skill-based point of view, she was so far above me it wasn't even funny. In classes and sparring sessions she always fought with a casual, icy calmness, as if she wanted to prove that she didn't _need_ to make an effort to trounce anyone she laid her eyes on. I was beginning to realize that she'd probably acted like that because it was _true_. If Konoha hadn't been at peace for two decades she would have graduated early, years and years ago.

She had maneuvered so Kakashi was now directly between me and her.

Kakashi caught on to the fact that something was up. He sidestepped out of the way of a kunai thrown by Naruto, crouched under a trio of shuriken thrown by Izanami and cut the wire of a fourth, letting it fall harmlessly to the ground before it made its way back to him. Then he made to dash off to the side. Naruto blocked his way with a sustained blast of wind powerful enough to tear up grass, dirt and rocks. Kakashi was forced back from the attack - I figured even he wouldn't take something like that head on. He turned around once, quickly, and then his complete attention was on Izanami's fire technique.

Flame was spilling out from her hands and racing across the ground, forming a wide circle of white-hot fire around Kakashi which was almost complete already. As it closed, it touched the wind chakra from Naruto's attack, and where the two types of chakra intermingled they crackled violently as their users began to sync up their chakra flow, enabling compatibility. This was the part that took years of training together. Once the reaction took, it wouldn't need a lot of input from Izanami; it was a almost self-sustaining reaction as long as there was enough wind chakra to go around, and Naruto was piling it on.

He was already performing another technique, reshaping his attack into a huge, whirling tornado centered on Kakashi. I was beginning to lose sight of Kakashi in the midst of the quickly expanding conflagration. He was looking at the inferno around himself appraisingly, without panic.

_Of course._

The ring of fire consumed Naruto's chakra eagerly, eating it up and growing so fast it was almost an explosion in itself. An enormous, towering pillar of flames engulfed Kakashi. Patches of grass around the tornado were catching fire. Naruto was laughing madly and waving his arms at his creation, pumping more chakra into it.

I could feel the heat of it almost blistering my skin from here. Even though I was anticipating them, I almost missed the three small explosive-tagged kunai coming out of the center of the tornado straight at me, laced with fire chakra to protect them from the worst of the flames.

It had to be convincing, after all.

I threw myself sideways, then accidentally stumbled and crashed to the ground. One of the kunai zipped past the space that I'd occupied, and another landed right in front of me.

_Not as planned-!_ I managed to think to myself before I forced my attention away and started rolling to the side. I wasn't quite fast enough; the explosion sent me flying like a rag doll, everything in my hands torn from my grip. I landed on my right arm with a strangled cry. My shoulder and back were searing bright with pain and my head felt like molasses.

I struggled to think, to act, there was something I was supposed to do...

_The plan-!_

Everything snapped into clear relief. I reached my hand out to where the scroll would have dropped with a half-choked, anguished scream. A second? Two? Too late?

Strong arms engulfed me and I felt the immediate, sharp pull of a substitution technique. I fell onto the wet, moldy earth of forest underbrush, and some of it was shoved into my mouth by the impact. I spat and coughed, trying to push myself upright, but I didn't have the strength or the control.

_Focus._

Someone pulled me upright and turned me around. I blinked, my vision swimming and darkening for a moment until it cleared again. We were a few dozen meters or so into the forest, close to the river. Above, the trees shaded us from the bright midday sun. Kakashi stood in front of me, hands on my shoulders, studying me with a faint frown.

"And yet another failure," he said. "Are you alright?"

_Oh. Right._

With a half-sob, half-whimper, I stepped forward and Kakashi caught my weight as I faltered, holding me upright. I hugged my arms around his torso.

"You can barely stand," he said. "I'll take that as a no."

"Don't move," I whispered, holding on tight.

"What?"

"I've just armed the explosive scroll in my belt pouch," I wheezed. "Feel the flow of chakra from my left leg."

I could sense Kakashi freeze up, his pose stiffening. "The other scroll didn't blow," he said slowly. "A transformation technique. You had the real one in your pocket all the time."

"Yes. If you break my hold, it blows. If you distract me too much, it blows, because I need to concentrate - it's very sensitive." I cleared my throat and continued. "There's no appreciable timer. _You_ would probably get away, but _I_ won't. I'd die, and right now you're responsible for my life, like you just proved yourself by 'saving' me. This isn't war; it's not even a mission. You can get away with a lot, but the death of a genin during an exam? That's bad publicity. There'd be a trial."

"You're... holding _yourself_ hostage against me?"

"That's right." I coughed and winced, tightening my grip on him as my sense of balance shifted alarmingly and my back and shoulder flared up in pain. "Wow, that hurts."

There was a moment of silence while I blinked something wet out of my right eye. It felt sticky, there was a lot of it.

"Well, it sounds like you have me in a proper pinch here," Kakashi said, his tone unreadable. "Now what?"

There was the soft patter of approaching footsteps.

"Now we take the bells!" Naruto's voice announced. I couldn't see him, with my head pressed into Kakashi's chest and looking the wrong way. Naruto continued. "_Sweet_ work, Sakura-holy shit." His voice cut off. "You, eh... all right?" he asked cautiously.

"Just take the bells," I bit out. "Quickly."

Light footsteps with a pronounced limp approached quickly, then darted away again accompanied by a tingling sound. "I have them," Izanami said.

"Thank the sage," I muttered, my posture slumping slightly. My chakra wobbled. With alarm, I began to bring it back under tight control to reset the scroll timer. There _was_ a timer, I wasn't _that_ insane; I needed time to turn it off if this blew up in my face.

But before I could regain control, many things happened at once, too fast to process. Something coursed through me, making all of my muscles seize up at once. Kakashi twisted out of my grip, seeming to implode into empty air. Something touched my left thigh and then my arms were twisted behind my back. I started to fall forward before the grip on my arms caught the weight.

I cried out in pain. It felt like my arms were twisting out of their sockets. Something grabbed me around the throat and pulled me fully upright. Only then did I manage to choke out, "The scroll-!" before I froze with realization, eyes wide.

It should have blown by now. What in the world...?

The grip on my throat relented a bit and something sharp and cold was pressed hard against it.

"I believe the appropriate term was 'don't move'," Kakashi whispered softly into my ear. His tone was amused. I felt out, and found what I was searching for; chakra at my left leg that wasn't my own, perfectly modulated to keep the scroll from blowing. I felt a bitter taste in my mouth. He had determined _exactly_ what I was doing, and he'd replicated it already.

Naruto and Izanami, I could see, had only managed a stunned half-reaction. Izanami was slumping, looking like she was ready to drop dead on her feet. That last technique had clearly taken everything she had left. Her eyes were their normal dark brown color now, her chakra insufficient to sustain even her Sharingan. Naruto was gripping a kunai so hard his hand was white, a grim look on his face.

"What the fuck?" he growled. "We got the bells. We pass."

"Yes," Kakashi said. "You do. Congratulations."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

I could feel Kakashi nodding behind me, indicating the two of them. Naruto and Izanami.

"You two pass," he said. His tone grew harder. "Sakura... fails."

Izanami's brows furrowed, and she frowned. Naruto's jaw dropped.

My breath caught. There was the physical pain of my head and back and my shoulder, the sharp pain as the kunai at my throat cut slightly into skin, and the discomfort of being held forcibly like this, but that was just that. I could tolerate it. I'd had worse physical pain during the infamous 9th year hell week and the interrogation resistance training. But now... this was different. I felt _sick_, like somebody had just punched me in the gut and then kicked me lying down.

"What the hell?!" Naruto exclaimed angrily. "Are you insane?"

"Hardly," Kakashi said. "I stated your goals clearly: get the bells. You have them."

I could feel the opportunities slipping away already. The accelerated promotion track away from active field duty and grunt work, the research scholarships, all the things I could _do_.

"The test can't be about getting the bells," Naruto bit out. "You said other teams have passed in the past. The sannin. Your team."

"I lied," Kakashi said simply.

_But that's-I-but-he didn't-_

My mind was trying to handle several splintering, conflicting trains of thought at once. What would mum and dad think?-this wasn't making any sense it wasn't fair-what was I going to do now?-dad would be relieved, mum would pretend not to be, and that would be _stupid_-and-

I forcibly jerked my mind to a halt. _Pay. Attention._ A ringing silence was left in my head.

"You're our superior!" Naruto was accusing Kakashi. "We're supposed to trust your word!"

_No we're not._

"Superiors can be enemies too," Kakashi said.

This wasn't making any sense.

"But-" I began, then choked off my words and grit my teeth together to endure the pain as Kakashi's hold tightened instantly and his kunai pressed harder against my throat. I could feel drops of blood trickling down and settling into the neckline of my clothes. I fought to keep from panicking, to keep my breathing calm and controlled.

This was _real_. A person was _really_ pressing a kunai into my throat. If he moved his hand just a little bit, I would be dead. I almost choked on a suppressed gulp. The tip of the kunai pressed harder still, unyielding as my throat flexed. I stilled, trembling, forcing muscles rigid against their will, trying keep the lid on my rising panic.

"Not a word," he murmured ever so softly behind me.

"What do you _want_ from us?" Naruto asked.

"I want you to _think_," Kakashi said to Naruto and Izanami. "You've fulfilled the mission parameters. Your teammate has been taken hostage by the enemy and has now become nothing but a liability. She's endangering your mission. You're a ninja."

"This isn't a fucking mission," Naruto said. "This is a test. We're freshly minted genin, not experienced ninja. We're _fifteen_."

"You ceased being children the moment you passed your exams," Kakashi said. "You're ninja now. This is an adult profession, and I'll treat you exactly like I would any other adult."

"Look at her," Naruto said. "She's _crying_, for gods sake."

Was I? I wasn't sure. My cheeks were wet and I wasn't seeing right, but it could've just been more blood. I felt numb. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't _concentrate_.

I thought I registered a measure of pity in Naruto's eyes, and something else. I clenched my jaw bitterly. Hadn't it been _my_ plan that even got him so far? My _sacrifice?_

"Only more proof that she deserves to fail," Kakashi said, his tone cold. "She doesn't have what it takes."

It _burned_, hearing him say that. I wanted to speak out, to accuse him of hypocrisy, of favoritism, of _anything_, to demand answers, but I _couldn't_ _speak_. He wouldn't _let_ me. This wasn't _fair_. My cheeks felt hot and my vision swam. I definitely was crying now; I couldn't stop it.

"I'm not listening to any more of this," Naruto said. Through the blur of my vision I saw his kunai dropping from his hand. He squared his shoulders and clenched his fists. Something _shifted_.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

"This is not a wise course of action," Kakashi warned him. "You're treading dangerously close to failing yourself, now."

"Naruto, _no_," Izanami said. It was the first time she'd spoken in this conversation at all. "This isn't _worth _it, _she_ isn't worth it-"

Naruto's gaze flickered at her. "Pitch in or fuck off."

Izanami's mouth opened, then closed again. She took a deep breath, drew a kunai and faced Kakashi without another word, her gaze hard.

"Thanks," Naruto said quietly.

Izanami shrugged.

Naruto fixed his gaze on Kakashi, and there was something wrong, there. Naruto looked too confident. I realized with a faint shiver that he wasn't afraid of Kakashi at _all_. And that was when I felt it; a hint of something - a very faint feeling that quickly grew in intensity, like I was a microscopic mote peeping through a tiny hole at something incomprehensibly _vast_ that surrounded me, _engulfed_ me. Some primal instinct was screaming at me from the back of my brain: _DANGER. RUN._

"You're sure about this?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto nodded. "You want a fight? I'll give you a real fucking fight."

I felt Kakashi turn to look at Izanami. "And you too?" His tone was colder. "I'd looked forward to training you. There are a lot of things only I can teach you. There aren't any second chances here."

Her jaw clenched tight, but she just stared back at him, staying by Naruto's side, not a word leaving her mouth. The two of them locked gazes for long, tense seconds.

Then Kakashi sighed. "That's good."

His grip on me softened, the sharp edge of the kunai disappeared, and I found myself lowered gently to the ground. My legs crumbled under me as he stopped holding my weight, and I fell the rest of the way to my hands and knees. The sudden movement caused my entire world to wobble and I lost my balance, falling to the ground.

"Congratulations," I heard him say from behind me.

"What the hell...?" I breathed, touching my throat tenderly where the kunai had cut me. My hands were shaking like leaves. In the back of my mind, without even paying any attention at all, I was keenly aware of that ominous, foreboding feeling fading away sharply. I looked up at Naruto, intuiting that he really must have been the source of it. He was looking very confused, staring with open suspicion at Kakashi. Izanami's mouth was hanging slightly open with incomprehension.

I turned my head and looked up at Kakashi. What little I could see of his face was apologetic. His one visible eye gleamed with something I couldn't quite place as he looked between the three of us.

"You pass my test," he said. "All three of you pass with flying colors."

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

As a general rule, reviews make authors happy. As a specific rule, reviews make _me_ ecstatic. Click that button. Write those words on your mind. You know you want to.


	3. Spark 3

It is a generally accepted and generally ignored fact that all ninja villages today deploy what are essentially child soldiers. These children, trained from early childhood in the art of battle and chakra manipulation, grow into the elite ninja corps that are renowned for their ability to wage swift, brutal war on the battlefield.

The practice stems from earlier times, before the aggregation of the lesser noble houses into the larger elemental countries in the final alliances to fend off incursions from larger foreign entities. Ninja in those times were largely mercenary clans for hire who fought for money, fame and prestige; the training of the clan's children into young warriors was simply a matter of course, tradition and, occasionally, need.

It is likely that changing the way things worked was never truly considered, given the fragile formative years of the ninja village concept which was spearheaded by the First Hokage. Which brings us to today, when children are recruited to academies at the age of five and graduate to some form of active service from ages nine to eighteen, depending on village and the need at the time. The villages who even feel the need to defend the practice argue that a ninja's early years are crucial in the development of their true potential powers, and that their younger ranks are mostly kept safe with non-lethal, non-hazardous missions.

Nevertheless, however horrifying the thought may be, the practice is tolerated. For many decades now no great nation has gone to war with a major opponent possessing ninja support without first acquiring such support for themselves. It has become strictly necessary for even smaller nations to maintain and fund the so-called ninja villages in times of peace, who in turn pledge their loyalty to their host nation in times of war.

— _Yuzuki Ryoka, "So you think you know ninja?", Excerpt of Article pp. 16-19, Gotama Weekly, Issue 7493_

* * *

_Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving._

* * *

"This isn't too bad. Just scary-looking cuts and bruises. There won't be any scars."

"It hurts less than I'd thought it would at first," I admitted. I was sitting on a mossy tree log in the forest, while Kakashi gave me a once-over to make sure I was going to be all right. He had guided me here after handing me back the explosive scroll and having me deactivate it.

Naruto and Izanami were off in the distance, near the shore of the river; Izanami sat tiredly and Naruto stood beside her, his shoulders barely sagging. I should be more curious about that, I should have questions about his inhuman stamina, but all I could think was: _later_. I did not have the physical or mental energy to pester him about the secret bloodline limit he must be in possession of. I couldn't even be sure he'd tell me, or that he was allowed to.

Izanami and Naruto seemed to be arguing; Naruto was waving his arms to make some point while she idly cleaned and patched up her cuts and bruises, occasionally glancing mulishly aside at him, letting out a few words that looked lethally sharp even at this distance. I couldn't bring myself to feel interested. I felt... numb. Out of balance.

Moments ago, I'd been failing one of the most important tests of my life-now I had a renowned and powerful jounin sensei, an internationally famous teammate who had one of the rarest and most powerful bloodline limits in the world, and another teammate who received strange, significant glances from someone like Kakashi and had some secret bloodline limit which left him barely exhausted after performing feats of endurance and chakra capacity which I was sure could floor some jounin.

And here I was, with my silly seal tricks, trying to compete or even keep up with people like that? Just who was I kidding?

It felt unreal.

Kakashi said something, from behind me.

"What?" I asked.

"I said, I'll take care of this here."

I frowned. "Isn't this a job for the hospital back in the city?"

"It's not too serious, and I'd rather you three got used to the less-than-stellar conditions in the field. It's rare on a mission that you have convenient access to a well-staffed and advanced hospital like the Konoha Primary. I've got here some good old regular anti-septic and a few field-issue bandages - with that you'll be perfectly fine. The rest is bruises and chakra exhaustion, to which the only known cure is rest."

I nodded. I wasn't sure I agreed, but I didn't have the energy to question his line of thought. My entire body was aching and weak and I felt ready to lie down and sleep for a week, and as soon as I got home that was exactly what I would be doing.

Kakashi rummaged behind me, and then started dabbing something on my shoulder. I hissed before I could stop myself. Then the pain faded, replaced by the anti-septic chill.

"So what was the test _really_ about?" I asked.

There was a small pause before Kakashi answered. "Being a ninja is full of interesting contradictions. I want pupils who, when faced with some of these contradictions, make the right calls."

"Sticking with our teammates, you mean?"

"Yes."

"That's more idealistic than I'd have expected from..." I stopped myself.

"What?"

"Well... from someone like you," I admitted.

He chuckled. "Someone like me? No, I won't ask. But you'll find that secretly, most ninja in the end fall into two categories: the cynics, and the idealists."

"Huh."

"I happen to be on the side that thinks that a ninja who breaks the rules is trash, but that a ninja who abandons their comrades is worse than trash."

I frowned. "That makes either choice sound bad."

"That's true. Yet when faced with two bad choices, a real ninja should have the guts to pick the least bad one without hesitating. But the best idea, of course, is to avoid ever getting into that kind of situation. Always keep that part in mind."

I frowned, then nodded. "Okay."

"Which reminds me," Kakashi said a few moments later. "I should... apologize. For what I did back there."

"Hm," I grunted, not trusting myself to not say something stupid if I actually spoke out loud.

Kakashi was quiet for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Okay. That's done. Ah, allow me to compliment you on your clever trap, by the way. That one was your idea? I was given that impression."

I cleared my throat and licked my lips. "Yes."

"I was curious what the trap was, when I saw you drop the transformed scroll - I only noticed then that it had been transformed, actually, very good job with that - so I played along. I have to thank you. It was an excellent opportunity to carry out the real test."

"Wait... you mean you _knew all along?_" I asked. "You were just... _playing_ us the whole time?"

It put a very different perspective on today's events.

"I admit... you did confound me for a short time, until I figured out how you were maintaining the scroll trigger. I didn't expect you to use yourself as unacceptable collateral to escaping the trap. _That_ was the part that caught me off guard. I was very impressed."

"I... see." I suddenly found myself studying my lap in great detail.

Kakashi walked around the log and bent down in front me. I let him put a hand under my chin and he began to clean the gash on my forehead and the cut on my throat. This time, being more prepared, I did manage to hold back the hiss.

"I'm curious to hear how you managed to make those scrolls work," he said. "I've heard rumors that it's possible, but nothing substantial. What did you do - fix the timing issue, or did you somehow circumvent the diminishing returns on a storage seal's chakra capacity, or was it something else entirely?"

"The timing," I said. "It's actually pretty simple when you realize it."

"Oh?"

"If you start thinking about how cl-" I began, then stopped, frowned, and spent the effort to really gather my thoughts for a moment. I blinked and fought down a spell of dizziness, then eyed Kakashi with faint alarm. "I'm under no obligation to tell you how it works."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Really?"

It wasn't fair of him, to try and fish out my secrets while I was as muddle-headed as this. By rights, the scrolls were _my_ work. He should know that-or perhaps he did. I wouldn't put it beneath him, from what I'd seen him do so far - idealist or no.

"Really," I said. "You know that."

"I do?"

"'No single ninja or clan affiliated to Konoha shall be obliged to reveal the workings of techniques developed, discovered by or passed on to them.'" I frowned. "Or... something like that, I don't remember the exact wording."

"First's law," Kakashi said, nodding as he fastened a plaster to the cut on my forehead. "You've done your research."

"More like I passed History in fifth grade," I muttered. "Half of the clans of Konoha only joined because of that law. It's the reason we're the largest ninja village around. Besides being the first."

"But you still told me enough, I think. Clocks, you say? Interesting."

"It won't work," I said quickly. "It'll still just be useless."

He nodded. "I see. I'll keep that in mind when it doesn't work the first time around. Thank you."

"But-you can't just-" I stopped myself and stared at Kakashi. The corner of his visible eye was crinkling and he was looking _far_ too amused.

"I _am_ the Copy Ninja," he said mildly. "What did you expect?"

"Fair play?" I almost winced, just saying it. I already knew what the answer would be.

"That's a very good joke. Also a very bad one."

I stared at Kakashi. He stared right back without the slightest twitch. "Okay," I said. "I get it. There's a lesson there I'm supposed to learn, right?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know. Is there?"

_Layers within layers..._

I scowled at him. "I'm tired. Can we please...?"

He stared at me for a moment more, then nodded and stood up. "Okay. Your shoulder is clean, but it should be bandaged. So it's off with the shirt and anything else that might get in the way. Come on, don't be shy."

I stared at him. "You're not serious."

He sighed. "I'll have to write in and complain," he muttered. "Or work on my line delivery. And to think, that one always works in the books."

I blinked, taking a moment to digest that. His _porn_ books. "Oh my god! That's disgusting! You're trying to-" I cut myself off. Then my eyes narrowed and I studied what I could see of his expression more closely. It was studiously blank and innocent, regarding me keenly.

"Wait..." I said.

Kakashi held out a small roll of bandages-I got the sense that he was grinning, behind that mask. "I suspect you want to do this next part yourself. I know you scored perfectly in first aid."

I blinked. There was a small pause.

_You bastard._

"The theory part, anyway," I corrected him, releasing a pent-up breath. I snatched the roll from his hand. "I'll... be right there."

He nodded. "Don't be too long. We're almost done for today."

I sat, unmoving, and watched him trundle over towards Naruto and Izanami, his hands in his pockets.

_Does he _ever_ tell the truth, or stop testing us?_

At least I now knew that I had been right about him not being anything like the slouchy bum he resembled. Having him for a sensei was going to be a nightmare, I could tell. At least it also boded to be an instructive one.

I pulled myself to my feet and retreated behind some nearby bushes to peel off my t-shirt. It was torn in several places, and blood had soaked into the fabric. I sighed; I'd have to throw it out. Applying the bandages around the shoulder was a little tricky, but I got it done. Ten minutes later I pulled my t-shirt back on, wrinkling my nose at the stiffened patches of blood-stained fabric.

I tried to ignore the feeling. Instructors had been clear on the point, and hell week had been _much_ clearer still: being squeamish about things like this would _not_ help you as a ninja. I'd sparred full-contact regularly for years, as was the norm in first-grade; I wasn't a stranger to blood or pain, though this was more than I was used to.

When I finally dragged myself back to the others, Naruto and Izanami seemed to have come to some sort of agreement-or at least, the argument was over. I wondered what it had been about. Interestingly, Izanami was the one looking sour and mulish (more than normal, that was), and Naruto the one who was whistling and throwing pebbles into the river. Kakashi leaned against a tree with his arms crossed, observing both of them. He turned towards me as I neared.

"There you are," he said. "Okay, I'm going to give a brief outline of what this is going to be like, before we part for the day. You've probably heard, but in the beginning we're going to be doing mostly D-rank missions, until I feel we're ready for C-ranks."

Izanami frowned. "You're kidding, right?"

"Procedure is procedure. And this is peacetime, with no war or major conflict brewing anywhere we care, for once."

"D-ranks are missions like intracity escorts, community service, assisting the police and _maybe_ brief out-of-city forays," Izanami pointed out in icy tones.

Kakashi shrugged at her. "Nobody's in any hurry to get killed these days."

Izanami's expression soured even further, if that was possible.

_Suck it up, Izanami_, I thought privately with faint glee. _You'll have to get down on your knees with the rest of us, painting fences for some crappy kindergarten, creating good PR for the glory of Konoha._

"Most first-grade teams move on to C-ranks within a week or two, or just skip straight to them, but I don't care much for established precedent," Kakashi said. "I won't feel you're ready for more serious missions until I see some real team cohesiveness. That might be a few days, or a few months-but that part is up to you. That's another thing I wanted to say. I'm not going to hold your hands all the time. But-" he held up a finger "-that doesn't mean you can't come to me with anything if there's a problem. I'm your sensei now, which means I'm available whenever, wherever."

He clapped his hands. "So! I'll be picking enough D-ranks from the mission board every morning to keep you occupied until around two o'clock. Now, some team leaders are happy with relying on just academy training and accumulating experience through missions, but I'm not-which means that after that we're going to train. You'll generally get off some time in the late afternoon, probably, but I'm not going to offer up a schedule as I'm just going to be improvising anyway."

_Well, that sounds... promising._

"You're not coming with us on the D-ranks?" I asked.

He looked at me. "Barring perhaps the occasional exception, I have better things to do than standing around in the downtown markets making sure nobody's shoplifting vegetables and running down the culprits that inevitably do. Which, by the way, is honestly a lot harder than it sounds."

Izanami looked offended. Naruto grinned at her looking offended. I frowned, peering at Kakashi with suspicion. He noticed, and I could see him smile faintly at me behind his mask. I had the feeling he was being tricky again. He _would_ be watching us while we worked, seeing how well we were doing. Maybe while also reading porn, which was a creepy thought, but I doubted very strongly he would just be ignoring us. It... didn't fit with my impression of him.

"That's it for today," Kakashi said. "The Administration is being uncharacteristically merciful, so we start in four days, giving you a single day to recuperate after the graduation ceremony the day after tomorrow. I'll see you before then at the ceremony, eight sharp, for swearing your oaths."

He eyed us over, almost curiously. "And... good work today. I'm almost looking forward to this."

He vanished in a puff of smoke.

* * *

The midday sun was high in the sky and there was barely a cloud to be seen. A light breeze blew across the academy grounds, providing a welcome breath of fresh air in the stifling summer heat.

Almost a thousand freshly minted genin stood in neat rows in the Konoha Ninja Academy's central assembly area. They were divided into teams of three, a chuunin sensei standing before each team, facing them. Slightly ahead of the rest stood two smaller rows of genin teams; the first-grades, with their jounin standing in turn in front of them. On the ground before every graduate lay a gleaming, polished forehead protector embossed with the swirl and triangle symbol of Konoha.

Kakashi, of course, was the one who stood in front of my team; Team Seven of class 1A. He stood slouched as ever with his hands in his pockets, staring at us with bemusement, as if even he had trouble believing that we were standing here.

To our right was Team Eight, their jounin being a woman with eyes so red that I'd almost mistaken for a Sharingan user when I first studied her closer. She was surveying her new team with a faint, almost maternal smile. Beyond Team Eight stood Team Ten, which was Ino's team, with Sarutobi Asuma as their jounin. Straight to our left was Team Five. Team Six and Team Nine had failed their tests, along with Team Two and Team Twelve. They would be standing somewhere behind us with the second-grades.

To the sides, thousands of fold-up plastic chairs had been put out for parents, relatives, media, tourists and anybody else who wanted to take a look at the newest of Konoha's finest. I could spot my parents out of the corner of my eye, and that was only because close family, along with the explicitly invited media, were reserved privileged positions at the front.

Every seat I could see from here was taken, and a lot of people were standing up. The academy's graduation ceremony was one of the bigger public events of the year; I'd attended many times before, myself, dragging my mother and father along. It felt very odd-and unnerving-to finally be the one standing here under all of these gazes, instead of over there at the sidelines, looking forward to the day _I_ would get to be here.

_Well, now I _am_ here. Finally._

In front of everyone assembled stood a wooden podium for speaking. To the side of _that_ stood an old man in white and red robes, wearing a diamond-shaped conical hat with the kanji for 'fire' engraved on it. I had a hard time keeping my gaze from him; this was the first time I'd ever seen him this close in person. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage. He was barely twenty meters away.

He was talking to a small group of council-members, a gaggle of secretaries and assistants hovering in the background. They were nodding at each other and shaking hands; it couldn't be long now. Indeed, barely a minute passed before the group parted, and the Hokage ascended onto the podium. The sound from the speakers of him adjusting the microphone and then clearing his throat boomed across the area, and brought a hush to the crowd.

_Every year..._ I thought. _I'm called here..._

"Every year," he began, "I'm called here to stand before you all."

_He always starts the same way._

"Looking at all of you standing here in front of me ready to carry on the Will of Fire lifts an old man's spirit. I know that you are young, and that you probably hear this kind of thing far too much from old people like me, but I believe that, later, when you eventually stand in a position somewhat like mine, you will understand my meaning much more clearly when I tell you that everything my generation has achieved is standing in front of me today." He paused, for a moment. "I couldn't be prouder."

I frowned; he'd never said anything _quite_ like that before.

"But on with it. Every year, my speech is a little different. Some years, I talk about the hope that new generations bring. Some years I talk about the harsh realities that await you. This year, I will talk about why we are all here. You don't understand now, but eventually you will."

He put both of his arms on the podium and leaned forward, his gaze sweeping across the assembled genin. I almost shivered when the weight of his gaze passed over me, and began to see some of the sense of his title.

"Look to your sides," he said. "Look at the person standing in front of your team. For the next years, these are the people you will fight and bleed with. They will be like your family."

I raised an eyebrow and looked to my left at Izanami. She was staring down at the ground. Past her, Naruto was frowning at the Hokage.

"A year from now, two years from now, five years from now..." the Hokage continued. "Eventually the time will come when you will be asked to put your life on the line for them. And by that time, you will do it. Why? Because they are your teammates, and you would do anything for them, as they would for you." He paused, briefly. "When I look at all of you, that is what _I_ feel."

He took a moment again, to sweep his gaze over all of us.

"All of us find something," he said. "Something that we would sacrifice everything for. Maybe that something will be your team. Maybe that something will be your friends, or family. Maybe it will be Konoha. I'm speaking, of course, of love."

He leaned forward and tapped his finger forcefully on the wooden podium with every word he spoke next: "There _is no force_ more powerful than the desire to protect. That inner strength is what drives every Konoha ninja onward when others would have given up a long time ago. We fight for our teammates, for our friends, for our family, for our _village_."

He stood back again, and waved a hand loosely in the air. "Pay no attention to those among you who shake their heads, thinking that I am simply being a silly old man. When you find that special someone whom you cherish above all else, you will understand. When you hold your newborn child in your arms, you will understand. When you fight and watch close friends and comrades bleed and die on the field of battle, you will understand why we are here. We are here because of those we love. We are here to protect them, and to make sure that their future is brighter than ours."

"So why do we fight, and bleed, and, perhaps, die?" he asked. "That is why. That's what the Will of Fire _means_. And that's what I'm going to ask of you this year. Find out why you are here. Find out why you fight. Find out what it is that you love, what you are willing to give your life for. Find that strength, and with it, you will be able to do wonders."

A palpable silence hung in the air as he let his words sink in before continuing again. The speech was more or less regular, after that. A few amusing anecdotes about his grandchild, apparently just recently enrolled in the academy, had everyone laughing dutifully. He had more words on what awaited us out there. And then, finally...

"Now!" he said, with a lighter tone. "I'm sure you are all eager to get on with the parts that _really_ interest you. I've been known to prattle in the past. Rest assured, I shall inflict no more of this on you."

There was a ripple of polite chuckling, but it quickly subsided again. I could feel the anticipation of everyone around me, like a rising pressure in the air. The Hokage cleared his throat. Every single team leader came to attention-even Kakashi.

"You have already taken your vows earlier today," the Hokage said. "You have done everything we asked of you, and you have performed admirably. As the joke goes, the reward for a job well done is another job. You are hereby all presented with your forehead protectors, marking your exemplary standing as ninja of Konoha."

There was a rustle of motion as all of the team leaders stepped forward at once. Kakashi started with Naruto, kneeling down to pick up the forehead protector in front of him and then standing back up to tie it around Naruto's forehead. He leaned in and muttered a few words, and Naruto nodded in turn. They shook hands. Kakashi then moved on to Izanami, putting her forehead protector on, and likewise leaned in to mutter a few words to her and shake her hand.

And then he was kneeling in front of me, picking up my forehead protector. I stood stiff while he tied it around my head, and then the weight of it settled. He leaned in, his gaze wry.

"I never thought I'd be here," he said. "So thank you for that. Congratulations."

I took his hand and shook it, feeling obliged to smile and nod. "Thank you."

He nodded and stepped back to his former place. I stole a glance around. Almost everybody else was done by now, too. It wasn't long before the Hokage spoke again. "And so we are done with the formal parts of today, though I am sure you have plenty of things to see to after this. Let's not keep you. I formally proclaim all of you genin of Konoha! May you serve well and long."

And that was that; the ceremony was over. We were now genin on active duty. A cheer started behind me, and I turned around, unable to resist grinning a little. The cheer spread as more and more genin joined it, turning into a roar-the sound was already deafening.

Then the surrounding crowds joined in.

* * *

I pushed my way through the crowd. There were cheerful genin everywhere, intermingling with parents and other relatives. I soon managed to track down my own mother and father; mother spotted me first of the two.

"Sakura!" she called out, beaming, and pointed in my direction for the benefit of my father.

I maneuvered my way there, and she hugged me tightly.

"I was so proud, watching you standing there all the way at the front," she muttered into my ear. "You're so grown up."

"Mom, stop it," I said, embarrassed, looking around over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching. Only dad.

Mother pulled away and held me at arm's length, beaming at me. I realized that she was crying. "Is... something wrong?" I asked.

She laughed and wiped her eyes. "Oh, no, no..." she shook her head. "Look at me, being all silly and emotional. Go say hello to your dad." She waved a hand flippantly in the air and turned away, sniffling loudly. I frowned at her.

"Don't mind her," someone muttered into my ear. I jumped, not having noticed my dad drawing closer. He put a hand on my shoulder and smiled. "She's just proud, that's all."

"That's really awkward, you saying that, you know," I said, abashed. "I'm not that good at all."

"You were at the front," he pointed out. "And even I have heard of your sensei. And of one of your teammates, too. You're among famous people."

"Well, yes, but-"

"But nothing," he cut across me. "I know you hate compliments. Ah!" He put his finger to my mouth as I began to protest. "Not a word." Then his face grew more serious. "What I wanted to say was, you know I don't approve of your choice, doing this." He waved a hand around us.

I frowned again. Was he really about to go into this, right now?

"But that doesn't matter right now," he said quickly, seeing my expression. "I'm still proud. I've always known that whatever you chose, you would be the best at it." He smirked knowingly. "You _are_ my daughter, after all."

"_Dad..._"

"I mean it!"

I eyed him. "You're really okay with this?"

He pursed his mouth for a few moments. "As long as you don't get hurt-too much, I know how it is-and I can count on you coming home some day with my grandchildren in hand and taking care of me when I grow old... I'm okay with it." He smiled, and held out his hand. "Is that a deal?"

I opened my mouth, thinking back to the brutality of Kakashi's test, and, before that, hell week. I'd managed to keep the worst of those things from my parents. They would just worry and nag incessantly. They already reacted badly enough to the few nicks and bruises they did see.

Dad _especially_ had not been happy about the cut on my throat, after I'd come back two days ago. It had taken me forever to convince him that Kakashi had had everything under control and that he was just trying to simulate a realistic situation.

"Sakura?" my dad asked as the silence lengthened. "You really shouldn't have to stop and think about this, you know."

I blinked, then forced a tight smile. "No, of course not." I took his hand. "It's a deal, dad."

He pulled me in for a tight hug. I tried not to wince as he put pressure on my shoulder. "Okay, kiddo," he said. "That's good."

"I don't know about the grandchildren thing, though," I muttered wryly into his hair.

He chuckled and released me, stepping back with a twinkle in his eye. He crossed his arms and looked over at mother, standing a small distance away, now talking with some other woman whom I didn't recognize. "We'll have to see what Mebuki says about that. Your mother can be a scary woman when there's something she really wants."

"I'd like to see her _try_," I muttered under my breath.

"What's that?" he asked. "I didn't hear."

"Oh, nothing."

"I think I see your friend Ino, there," my father said. I looked at where he pointed and saw Ino standing with her parents a small distance away. She noticed me looking and waved.

"Uhm..." I began and looked aside at mom, still engaged in conversation.

My dad saw, and smiled. "Go."

"But-"

"Go. We'll see you tonight. Not too late, okay?"

I opened my mouth to agree, then caught myself. "Dad, I'm legally an adult now and-"

"And you're still my fifteen year old daughter," he said. "If I get up at, say, three in the morning, and you're still not home, that doesn't mean you're any less grounded."

I hesitated. I hadn't really planned on partying that much in any case. Traditional or not, parties really just weren't my thing. And the others would definitely want me to get drunk or something, now that we were allowed. Just the thought made me sigh. "Okay, no, definitely not that late."

_You are now my get-away excuse._

"That's good to hear." He patted me on the shoulder, giving me a soft push. "Now off with you. Enjoy your day."

I smiled at him. "Thanks."

I walked over to Ino. She said something to her parents and stepped clear of them, meeting me halfway.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," I replied with equal inanity.

"The headband suits you. Hides the forehead."

"Oh, shut up."

She grinned and put her arm around my shoulder. "Come on, cheer up! We're genin!"

"I... guess we are. Huh."

She looked at me, frowning. "What's on your mind?"

"I was just thinking about the Hokage's speech," I admitted after a moment's hesitation.

"I thought it was pretty corny," Ino said. "But he's alright, our Hokage. Unlike most of the other Kage."

"Or so the Konoha papers would have us believe," I said. "Still... I think I got what he meant. Okay, it was pretty corny, but maybe that's just what people sound like when they actually mean what they're saying, and we're just used to the censors everybody puts on themselves because they're afraid of sounding silly."

Whatever else he was, the Hokage clearly was not afraid of sounding silly, which lent his words a weight all of their own.

Ino crossed her arms. "That's... a pretty deep thought, Sakura. Maybe you're even right." She shrugged, grinning slyly. "But honestly, is now the time?"

I sighed. "I guess not."

"Right." She nodded, and clapped her hands eagerly. "So! Genin night! We-_I_-have it _all_ planned out. It's going to be awesome, and there's going to be a few surprises even _you_ are going to love."

I groaned and she jabbed me lightly on the shoulder. "Don't think I'll let you escape, my introverted little friend. You are a genin now, and you will join everybody else in becoming gloriously drunk while we wag our tongues at everyone under twenty without a headband."

Of _course_ Ino was the one who had energetically taken on the responsibility of organizing and planning the first-grader's version of the traditional collective post-graduation pub-crawl. Ino loved partying, she loved being the center of attention, and she was definitely going to be the one to make sure that our first night as genin was unforgettable if she had anything to say about that.

_And_ I'd seen her whispering conspiratorially with Naruto several times in the last few weeks. I had a budding theory that the two were arranging something together - it helped that she'd just slipped and admitted she had at least one other co-conspirator.

I licked my lips and opened my mouth only to be interrupted as she patted me on the back. "Don't worry, we're not starting yet. I, for one, need to get home and spruce up a bit before tonight." She eyed me impishly. "You might want to put a bit of effort into it as well."

"In your dreams," I choked.

"Just a _bit_ of make-up, Sakura." Ino pouted. "You could look pretty if you wanted to. I know I gave you some for your last birthday. It was the good stuff, too."

I sighed, trying not to shake my head. "I'll see you when?"

"Fifteen hundred. I'll come by your house."

"Right."

"And you just _have_ to spend the walk to the meet-up telling me about your trial with Kakashi. I heard from Shikamaru that no team has _ever_ passed Kakashi's test before. I got so worried-I'm _dying_ to know what happened."

"Uh... sure. If you tell me about yours."

She grinned. "It's a deal. See you there."

* * *

"This shirt... or this...?" I muttered under my breath.

I held both up in front of the mirror-still a little foggy from the shower I'd just taken-trying to weigh their merits and, maybe more importantly, their demerits, against each other.

"Gah." I let both of them fall to the floor. At least finally getting the bandages off had been nice. The wound did seem to be healing nicely; it would probably be gone entirely in a week or two. I could see why Kakashi hadn't been too worried about it.

Not that the thought got my mood up entirely. I _hated_ getting ready for social events. Should I put on make-up? How much? Where? How much perfume should I use, and which kind? Should I set my hair somehow? Wear a... push-up bra? Did I even _have_ one of those? I sighed. All those arcane questions. I had no idea; did it even matter?

I fancied myself an honest person, and frankly, I wasn't the most curvaceous or attractive of girls. I was short, gangly, flat as a board and my eyes were a mushy, extremely non-striking pale green. And then of course, to top it all off, for strange and unknown genetic reasons, my hair was naturally a bright, screaming _pink_. I reached up and idly fiddled with a strand of it. I'd asked my parents about it, once, but it wasn't something they'd heard about before from any of their ancestors.

Genes of people with strong chakra potential were volatile in a very unique way, and mixing them often had unpredictable results; that led to all of the various useful and, of course, _less_ useful bloodline abilities that occasionally appeared. If I'd had to pick one, pink hair wouldn't have been it. Then again, the precision of my chakra control had often been noted as downright uncanny by instructors; maybe that was genetic too, in which case I supposed I shouldn't complain.

Actually, I did kind of like my hair, which was why I'd never colored it over-that would just feel like giving in. I didn't think it looked that bad, but socially, it wasn't exactly the most helpful of qualities. Everybody always thought I was dyeing it, and that made them assume... _strange_ things about me. That along with not being the prettiest of people made me stand out just enough, and had often left me isolated as a kid. I'd been bullied a bit over it, when I was younger, but not for years now, after I made the decision to simply stop caring about it and the bullies grew bored annoying someone who apparently didn't get annoyed.

Besides, later on Ino would kill anyone who gave me trouble over it, and if the class had had a social queen, she was it, since Izanami had never even bothered to compete for the spot. The thought made me smile. Ino could sometimes be an overprotective friend. Still; she might be silly at times, she was maybe a bit too energetic and sociable for my taste, and a hassle to be around when she went all starry-eyed girly-girl on things, but she was a true friend behind all of that.

I'd often thought that, being born as heir to one of the larger clans in Konoha, she'd sort of seen it as her duty to play to the media's stereotypes, buying nice clothes and being very outgoing and bright and... well, girly. Okay, she was definitely like that naturally too, but I thought that being around a person like me who didn't really care too much about all that allowed her to sometimes settle back and relax a bit without worrying about being judged.

Meanwhile, she was always the one to pull me out and do stuff, even though it was sometimes against my will. She often told me that if she didn't do it, I'd just be sitting inside all day, poring over scrolls or playing around with seals or practicing ridiculously complex chakra control exercises I'd dug up in some old book-for fun. It was true, too.

We struck a good balance. Synergy and all that. I sighed, staring into the mirror. _I wish we'd been on a team together. But I guess you have to work with the hand you've been dealt._

I glanced down at the shirts on the floor for a long moment, then bent down and picked one at random.

"Who cares."

Fifteen minutes later I opened the door half a second after Ino had knocked on it. She blinked, looked me up and down briefly, shrugged-_and there we have the verdict: on a scale from zero to ten, you get a shrug_-then leaned in to sniff at me. I leaned back a little.

"Uhh... what are you doing?" I asked.

"That shampoo doesn't really go too well along with that perfume, you know," she said.

_Right._

I shrugged. "Well, I guess that's too bad for the shampoo and perfume. They'll have to get along for the night."

"Being a girl is wasted on you."

I didn't blink. _I knew I should have picked the other one._

"Whatever you say, Ino." I looked down the street. "Shall we?"

"Yeah."

And so we were on our way. I really hoped this night wouldn't be too tedious.

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

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	4. Spark 4

_If you try to take a cat apart to see how it works, generally the first thing you have on your hands is a cat that doesn't work._

* * *

I awoke to a pounding headache, my consciousness unwillingly forced upon me before I could get out of the way, as if rising up from some deeper, safer level where it had taken refuge. There was a light which was almost sickening in its intensity. Why was there light? The very concept of light felt like a travesty to all that was good and right in the world.

"Gooood morning, Sakura!" a voice chirped brightly, hammering against my eardrums, and I moaned in protest. My brain was going to fall out of my skull any second. My head would crack like the shell of an egg and my brain would slip out like yolk, dripping down onto the floor and bringing a merciful end to things. The thought was strangely comforting.

"Go 'way, dad..." I groaned into what I realized must be some sort of pillow. "'S not funny..."

"I'm flattered that you've already grown so fond of me, Sakura," the voice said, "but I think your father would take offense."

I blinked open crusty eyelids and winced them shut again as unfiltered, searing light penetrated to my innards. I tried swallowing and immediately regretted it-my throat was dry like sandpaper and my mouth felt like the decrepit mausoleum of an ancient, forgotten horror. I lifted my head slightly, and the world lifted dizzyingly with it. I groaned, immediately letting it fall back down again.

"There's a lesson to be learned somewhere here, I'm sure..." the voice mused. "I wonder what it is..."

I ignored it, willing it to go away. There was silence for a blessed time, and then something jabbed me sharply in the shoulder.

"I brought water," the voice said.

Water. _Yes_. Wait, water was a fluid. _No_.

"Come on, now, we haven't got all day."

I inched open my eyes again, enduring the throb in my head that came every time my gaze moved. It took a moment to realize that I was in my room, lying in my bed. I took a deep breath, then slowly sat up, working my way through the requisite muscles one by one and reactivating them with conscious effort. After I'd adjusted somewhat to the light, I lifted my head to look around.

Kakashi was crouching at the foot of my bed-_in_ my bed. I yelped and flinched back, then suddenly ran out of bed on my left side and plummeted sideways with a strangled screech, crashing to the floor. Body and mind screamed in protest at the same time, and for a moment all of my attention was consumed with forcing down the instinct to be sick right then and there. It slowly subsided and my mind turned back to less immediate concerns.

"What the fuck," I choked, my cheek pressed against the cold wooden floor. It belatedly occurred to me that I at least had all of my clothes on - for some reason. I sat up and immediately grabbed my head, moaning. I pushed through the queasy pain and glared up at Kakashi, squinting against the light from the open window behind him. He gave me a small, insensibly cheerful wave.

"What are _you_ doing here?" I demanded hoarsely.

"Oh, just checking in with one of my students," he said and picked up a glass of water from the windowsill behind him, holding it out towards me. "Drink?"

I ignored the glass. "You're in my room. You broke into my room."

"It's a very nice room."

"Why are you in my room?"

"For a lot of reasons, some of them better than others."

I stared at him, mute, then dropped my head into my hands with a small groan, fingers rubbing my forehead.

"Did my parents let you in...?" I asked. If so, I needed to have a serious word with them.

"Oh, no, they're in the kitchen, having breakfast."

I looked up, squinting. "You mean they don't know that you're here?"

He shrugged. "I suppose that's true."

I stared at him with morbid fascination. "You must be the creepiest, weirdest sensei... ever."

"Thank you."

"It wasn't a-" I stopped myself. No point.

Kakashi bent down and set the glass of water in front of me. "You should really drink a bit, you know. It's not just water, there's all kinds of things in there. Everything the body needs after a decent night out on the town."

"_Decent...?_" I asked, pressing my hands against my eyes - the pressure felt relieving. "You're joking, right?"

"I'm afraid not."

"I'm never having a 'night out on the town' again. _Ever_."

"Very good. Now drink."

With a sigh, I let my hands drop, folded my legs together, took the glass of water and raised it to my lips. I grimaced; the taste was sour and bitter at the same time. About halfway through, I had to stop and put the back of my hand to my mouth as my stomach rebelled against the introduction of new elements. I held the glass in my lap while resisting the urge to regurgitate what I'd already drunk, and shot a withering glare at Kakashi.

"Okay," I muttered. "Explanations."

He nodded. "I already woke up Izanami and Naruto. They should be meeting us outside within ten minutes or so. That's how long you have to clean up and get dressed for your first D-rank."

I stared at him, for long seconds. "You're joking."

"Not even slightly."

"You said today was off."

He shook his head. "No, I said the _Administration_ said today was off."

_And clearly, there is a difference between what the Administration says and what Kakashi says._

I experimentally took another sip of the glass and grimaced, setting it down again. I had to admit that it was helping a little - I still felt half a second away from throwing up, but my head was steadying a bit.

I cleared my throat. "I suppose we all volunteered to start early and the paperwork saying so is all in order, signed by..." I eyed him suspiciously.

"Yours truly," he confirmed.

"Of course." I was beginning to get a sense of my new sensei, oh yes. "And I further suppose..." I growled "...that, were I to raise a fuss and tell you to stick your D-rank up where the light does not shine... it would not reflect well on my record."

"Insubordination tends to be slightly frowned upon, yes," he said mildly.

With a sigh, I slowly maneuvered myself to my legs, joints popping and creaking and making me feel like an elderly. I took a deep, slow breath, calming myself and firmly suppressing the impulse to try and punch my sensei in the face. Instead I just cracked my knuckles and stretched glumly, barely managing to not fall over backwards in the process. Then I headed for the bathroom, to see what could be done in ten minutes. More like eight, now.

I took a lightning shower, which was mostly two minutes of banging my head-_gently_-against the tiled wall to wake up while I turned the temperature down from burning hot to freezing cold, and dressed in fresh clothes. I returned to my room to find Kakashi looking at a couple of papers over by my workshop in the corner.

"What are you doing?!" I demanded.

"You really _did_ fix the timing issue. Huh."

I sped across the room in a single chakra-boosted motion, making a grab for the papers. He reached out backwards and grabbed my arm without even looking, and I stopped dead in my tracks, just like that. I blinked. What the _hell_ had _that_ been? Some sort of momentum-stopping technique? Would that work on yourself? I could see some uses for that. I almost lost track of why I'd been angry before I remembered to glare furiously at Kakashi.

"Easy," he said. "I was just doing a little thing for ANBU. I'm not stealing anything, nor telling anyone how it works, not that I understand it completely myself."

The effect of hearing that was like being doused in icy water. "ANBU?" I asked warily. What did Konoha's black ops forces want with my notes?

Kakashi released my arm and I stepped back, rubbing it where he'd gripped it. He looked once more at the papers he'd held up-old and by now outdated working notes on how part of the triggering mechanism in my explosive scrolls was put together. "You see, a few people over at ANBU refused to believe that anybody but them had figured out how to do it - they were convinced you'd somehow stolen their research. Luckily, they still listen to me, so they agreed to let me go check it out, just to be sure."

"And...?" I asked, unable to suppress a sudden, small shiver. I hadn't stolen anything, of course, but with ANBU you never knew; they didn't follow the rules everybody else did. If there was even a coincidental resemblance to how they were doing it...

Kakashi nodded down at the papers. "Well, clearly you didn't steal their method. Their scrolls work in an entirely different way-much more clunky, really, to tell the truth." He looked at me, the contour of a wry smile forming beneath his mask. "So no problem."

I breathed out uneasily, almost hesitant to feel relief.

"There's a lesson to be learned here, by the way," Kakashi said, waving at the papers now scattered across my workdesk. "I did try not to look, but I couldn't help but see some awfully interesting ideas here."

"Yes," I said. "I get it. Anyone can poke their head in my window and look through everything I own at any time, including my work. Gee, I forgot."

"That's a way of putting it."

I refrained from shooting him a glare. It was... sort of true, after all. Instead, I stared down at my desk, muttering: "I'll... fix that. Somehow."

"Good. Now-" Kakashi stopped and turned to look at the door to the hallway "-I'll be waiting outside." He vanished out the window.

A second later the door opened and my mother poked her head in. Her eyebrows rose when she saw me fully clothed. "We heard sounds from in here and I went to check," she said, a hint of worry in her tone. "Are you really up already?"

"As you can see," I said, then sighed and began gathering up my various equipment belts, strapping them on and checking their contents.

"What's the matter, Sakura?" my mother asked. "I didn't think you'd be up for hours yet, the way you were when you came home earlier." Her tone turned dangerously airy while her face remained straight, though there was a small gleam in her eye. "Your father is making grumbling noises about _someone_ not keeping their promises or something in that vein."

I'd already opened my mouth to reply when I realized that I had no idea at all what she was talking about-I couldn't even recall _how_ I'd gotten home, let alone _when_... or much at all from before that. I frowned, trying to remember, but... it was all just a darkish blur after the earlier parts of the evening.

_Never again_, I told myself firmly._ Ever._

I licked my lips and forced a smile for her, hoping it'd do. "I'm heading to work, mom. I'll be back later."

"Already?" my mother asked, frowning slightly. "I thought you weren't starting until tomorrow."

"Well, I'm starting today," I said shortly as I rifled through the last equipment pouch. I was still too light on a lot of things, after Kakashi's test-I only had so much cash to spare after all-but this would be enough for D-ranks. My head was another matter; it felt like my skull was playing host to a claustrophobic madman with a demonic sledgehammer.

I suppressed a groan, stepped up onto the windowsill and looked back at my mother. "I've gotta go..."

"Out the window, really, dear?"

"Don't... just don't ask."

My mother stared at me for a few moments, then licked her lips. "Dinner is at six. Will you be home by then?"

"I certainly hope so," I muttered darkly and swung outside.

* * *

It was fifteen minutes past one when we finally trundled into training ground five. My feet dragged, there probably wasn't a single part of my body that wasn't somehow hurting, and my stomach rumbled every few minutes or so.

"Where the hell is he?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know," I said and peered around. Training ground five was mostly used by academy instructors who needed the large, open space, but since the final year students had graduated and the rest of the academy's students were busy with their exams, it was sparsely populated. A few teams I didn't recognize were sparring or doing exercises, here and there, but Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.

He'd told us to meet him here at one o'clock when we were done helping the Regulars keep the law and order down by a large market fair, but we'd gotten held up subduing a huge drunken brawl that had sprung up out of absolutely nowhere right before we were supposed to be done. And that after an entire day of chasing shoplifters around and breaking up smaller fights while dealing with the mother of all hangovers. Today I had developed a newfound appreciation for the work which the Regular police did - I did not envy them.

"I guess we'll just have to wait," I said, walking over to a nearby tree and sliding down against it with a heavy sigh.

Naruto smiled, sitting down on the grass in the shade of the tree. "Killer first day, huh?"

"Tell me about it," I muttered, rubbing my forehead.

"You do look a little peaked."

I looked up at him, then self-consciously scratched the side of my freshly acquired black eye. They'd told me it didn't look too bad, but I wasn't so sure.

"I'm fine, really," I said.

Izanami snorted from where she stood against a nearby tree, arms crossed. I looked at her, trying not to glare. "Anything you want to say?"

"Nope," she said airily without looking at me, her gaze sweeping across the training ground.

I stared at her for a few more moments, then leaned my head back against the tree and closed my eyes, sighing again, determined to just enjoy the feeling of sitting down a bit and relaxing.

"This is ridiculous," Izanami said after a timeless interval. I jumped - I must have started dozing off. "He's twenty-five minutes late," she continued.

"We were _fifteen_ minutes late," Naruto pointed out. "Maybe he, uh, just went out to look for us."

"He should be back by now in that case."

I didn't say anything; I had my private suspicions about where exactly Kakashi was, but I wasn't going to just air them out loud here. Izanami could bloody well figure it out on her own.

"We wouldn't have been late if Sakura hadn't screwed up," Izanami muttered after a second.

I sat up straight and looked at her with disbelief. "_Excuse_ me?"

She raised her eyebrows at me. "What?"

"_You_ were the one who stormed in without us, doing your own thing when we were supposed to keep things contained while the police-"

"It got the job done in a hurry, didn't it?" Izanami said. "What else was I supposed to do? Stand around looking pretty?"

I realized that my mouth hung open, and belatedly closed it. "You _could_ have, you know, covered my flank like you were _supposed to_."

"Girls, girls," Naruto broke in. "Is this really the t-"

"Oh, I'm sorry for assuming you wouldn't have any trouble with a bunch of _civilians_," Izanami sneered. "I realize now that was too much to expect."

I almost began to reply hotly, but managed to stop myself short. In every confrontation like this, _someone_ had to keep a cool head or things could quickly get ugly. I didn't _want_ to get into a fight. I glanced aside at Naruto; he was glancing between me and Izanami, looking as if he wasn't certain just how much he was supposed to intervene.

_Okay_, I told myself, looked back at Izanami and took a deep, shaky breath. _It's just a problem like any other. And how do we solve problems? By bringing them out into the open where we can examine them, and then dealing with them._

I squared my shoulders almost without thinking, while trying to figure out how to put this.

"Okay, what does it _take_?_"_ I asked, trying not to let my voice tremble.

Izanami frowned. "What?"

"We've never been on the best of terms. My guess is that ever since you kicked my ass in that first match in third grade, I've been just another annoying little weakling that wasn't worth considering for someone like you. Being on a team with me annoys you because now you have no choice but to deal with me and you don't want to babysit me or make sure I'm alright when you don't think I can keep up, you just want to do the job and get on with it."

Izanami's eyebrows had risen by now. She glanced aside at Naruto, who was looking dumbstruck, and then looked around the training field as if to check whether we were being watched, and finally back at me. I almost shivered, for a moment, at the way her cold, dark eyes examined me - there was something vaguely predatory about that look.

"I'm on the right track, aren't I?" I asked.

She considered me curiously for a moment as if waiting for something to happen, then shrugged uncaringly. "Pretty much."

"So what would it _take_, to change that?"

The corner of her lip twitched. "I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"You wouldn't even have passed Kakashi's test without me," I pointed out, clenching my jaw. Where did she get off, putting it like that? It wasn't even a constructive insult, it was just bloody useless on every level.

"I'm not so convinced of that."

"It was about _teamwork_," I said. "If I hadn't gotten us to work together, we'd have _failed_."

Again, she shrugged. "We'll never know."

I clenched my fist and took a deep, shaky breath, but it was too late.

"How about this," I heard myself say coldly. "I go ahead and hand you your ass on a platter, and then you'll acknowledge maybe I'm not so useless after all."

Izanami smirked at me. "That would almost be interesting if it wasn't so pathetic. You see, I've already won."

She looked aside at Naruto, and I followed her gaze, then blinked-where the hell was he? Where the hell were _we_? Grass stretched as far into the horizon as the eye could see. Stunned, I looked back to Izanami, but she too was gone now, and so were the trees around us.

_Shit_, I thought. _Genjutsu._

Before I could react, a gust of wind blew and the grass began to turn to dust before my eyes, revealing cracked, barren dirt beneath. Within moments, I could hardly see for the storm of sand swirling around me - it stung the skin and it was uncomfortable to breathe. Overcoming that brief disorientation, I realized that I was floating; the storm was a void of darkness and swirling colors around me - I had to suppress a shiver of discomfort. The darkness parted like the lid of an opening eye, giving way to the image of a slowly rotating Sharingan that filled the whole world. It never moved, but no matter where I looked, I was always staring straight into its center. Just the thought made my brain hurt.

"You're not even trying to break it," Izanami's voice echoed around me, a hint of disdain tingeing it.

I swallowed, fighting a rising sense of panic. That was because trying would be no use. I could maybe break this illusion, flood my own system with enough chakra to sever Izanami's grip on me, but I'd been too slow already. I hadn't caught it in time, I didn't even know exactly when she'd done it - any of the times I'd actually been stupid enough to look her in the eyes, probably. Silently, I cursed myself. This was a lost battle, if you could even call it a battle at all.

"I didn't mean _now_," I said.

"We don't always get to pick our battles," Izanami's voice replied. "You seem to prefer the blunt approach, so be blunt with yourself. Even if I let this genjutsu go without taking advantage, and the two of us faced off right now, who would win?"

I paused as I considered the answer to that question-_actually_ considered it.

"I thought so," Izanami's voice came when I didn't answer right away. "When it _really_ comes down to it, you're just a scared little girl who has to go home to _daddy_ when it's l-"

"One month."

There was the briefest of pauses. "What?"

"Give me a month and I will kick your ass in a straight-up fight. If I lose, you can call me whatever you want. I'll even admit that I'm weaker than you, and do my best not to get in your way."

"Don't be silly."

"What, afraid you're going to lose?" I taunted, unable to help myself.

"I-"

The genjutsu was abruptly released, leaving me standing there on the grass in training ground five again. I jumped at the sudden transition and almost stumbled before I got a hold of myself. Izanami was standing right in front of me, considering me with narrowed eyes. Naruto had his hand on her shoulder as if to restrain her, and was staring at me with a worried expression.

The reason Izanami had released me immediately became apparent when I heard Kakashi's voice. "Is there a problem, here?"

We all turned to look at him, and nobody spoke for a moment. He was carrying a plastic bag - he must have only just arrived.

_Or pretended to, anyway._

"We-" Naruto began.

"No," I said firmly. They all looked at me, and I shot a glance at Izanami. "There's no problem at all. Right?"

She stared at me, a frown settling onto her face, and our eyes met for a few brief moments. I let them - she wasn't going to try anything again, not right in front of Kakashi. Her expression firmed and she gave me the slightest of nods, and I knew that I had my answer.

"No," Izanami said slowly. "No problem."

Kakashi looked between the two of us a few times, then shrugged. "Okay." He held up the bag he was carrying. "I brought lunch."

* * *

Ten minutes later, we had polished off lunch to the last crumb. I'd been starving, and evidently the same could be said for Naruto and Izanami - we hadn't had time to get anything after that riot, after all, and we'd also been far too busy earlier. Kakashi seemed to have eaten already, and had just sat quietly and waited while we ate.

At first, even just sitting there and eating had been a tense experience, as if lightning could spark between me and Izanami at any moment. The feeling had slowly disappeared, though, and it felt like everybody had finally calmed down a bit. I certainly had, after the mild state of shock and anger had faded into the occasional tremor as some leftover tension released itself.

I'd been spending the last five minutes silently berating myself for letting my temper get the better of me. A month to take out Izanami? I hadn't the slightest idea how I was going to pull that off. In fact, I was already beginning to doubt that I _would_ \- I found my thoughts angling more and more towards how to cope when I inevitably failed.

_Maybe_ I'd have a small chance if it had been six months, or hell, a year - why had I absolutely had to go ahead and say _one month_? I might as well have said one week, for all the good it would have done me. But for better or worse, one month was the deadline I was now stuck with.

I'd just started wondering what options I could actually explore when Kakashi sat up a little straighter and cleared his throat. We all looked at him.

"Alright," he said. "I've been studying your grades and Iruka's notes in greater detail. You've each got some personal strengths and weaknesses, and you know what those are. We'll be working on shoring up the weaknesses, of course, and making the strengths stronger-I'll give what help I can there. What I'm thinking is that I'll assign two of you exercises in pairs, and train the remaining person one on one, for an hour at a time. After that, we're going to be trying variations on team exercises like the bell test, with you three against me, until I'm tired of that. Then we can go home."

He looked at Naruto. "Mostly, it seems like you'd want to work on expanding your repertoire of techniques and refining your chakra control. I've got some ideas for how we can use your... uncommon amounts of chakra - some of them similar to what it seems like you and Izanami have already been doing. We'll see how that pans out."

"Sure," Naruto said.

I frowned; I'd almost completely forgotten about that in the midst of everything else. Even so, I stayed silent for now-it wasn't the time, though I really had to get around to asking him what that was all about. I was beginning to doubt I would get answers, too. If I hadn't been told so far, I probably wasn't going to be told at all.

Next, Kakashi turned to Izanami. "Your progression is rather more obvious. How far is your Sharingan along?"

"Second stage in each eye, like you saw," she answered tersely.

Kakashi nodded. "We'll test your various capabilities and see where our efforts are best applied. I've also got some fire techniques which I think would benefit your combat style."

She shrugged.

"Have you been working on anything else?" Kakashi asked.

She opened her mouth as if to reply, then stopped, her gaze flickering briefly at me. "Nothing important, no."

_Great, she's working on something else_, I thought sourly. _That's awesome._

Kakashi seemed to accept Izanami's statement at face value, though. He just nodded at her, then looked at me. I perked up.

"What you should be doing depends a lot on the direction you want to take," he said. "You've got talent with seals, and Iruka's notes said that your chakra control is on a rare level. From what I've seen so far, I agree with him. You could specialize in genjutsu, but with Izanami in the team that might prove superfluous in the short-term."

_No, really?_ I thought.

"You could also plan to enlist as a medic-nin once you're done with field duty and train to supplement that," he said.

I frowned in thought. Genjutsu was definitely out, yes. Medic-nin, though? There was an idea I'd never honestly considered. Healing people actually sounded nice - it was all about _fixing_ stuff, and that I could get on board with.

"You said you wanted to help people," Kakashi added, "and your chakra control means you would make a terrific medic-nin. As far as I can see, it looks like the best option for you."

It _sounded_ nice, yes. "Medic-nin aren't allowed to take part in direct combat if they can avoid it, though, right?" I asked.

Kakashi nodded. "That's part of the oath Senju Tsunade demanded of all of Konoha's medic-nin, yes. Even with her gone, they still swear it. I thought you might consider it an added benefit."

My eyes narrowed a bit at that last comment, but I held my tongue. I'd read about the oath of the medic-nin somewhere, and couldn't recall the details, but I _could_ recall that it was very restrictive. When you were a medic-nin, you were supposed to heal and help people, and _nothing else_. Tsunade, one of Konoha's three great Sannin and arguably the person who had invented the formalized profession of the medic-nin, had been extremely clear on that point.

And while that sounded nice, too, I had my doubts as to how sensible a philosophy that truly was. Besides, techniques and skills that were suited to be a medic-nin were fundamentally _not_ suited for combat, no matter which oaths I would or would not eventually swear, and that... was a problem.

I was quiet for a few seconds while I considered that, before I finally spoke. "Actually, I think I'd like to start working on my earth affinity. And if you've got time later, I've got a few questions about seals that could get a little involved."

Kakashi frowned. "Elemental techniques are chakra intensive, and learning an affinity can take quite a while."

"All the more reason to get started earlier. Besides, I tend to learn techniques very fast. That should be in the notes as well."

"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked. "I really think becoming a medic-nin would be a better choice for you, overall."

"I can always change my mind later," I said. "For now, yeah, I'm sure."

Kakashi looked doubtful. "You'll be practicing a few other basics besides that, then - I suppose that goes for all of you. As for the rest, I'll answer the questions I can-later, when we've seen what you can do. I also know some people higher up in the academy faculty. Maybe I can get you access to some of the level two or three scrolls and books on the subject."

I smiled. "That would be great."

"In that case, I'll see what I can do." He stood up and clapped his hands once. "Okay! Let's get to work."

* * *

Training was less immediately draining than I'd expected. Perhaps Kakashi had realized that we - or at least, I - were already drained from an entire day of trying to keep order in a drunken crowd. He was being... well, gentle was really the wrong word - non-psychotic might fit better. I was likely just comparing it to the way it had been when he was testing us. Now we could set our own pace while we were paired up and he was working with one alone. He'd set us to trying to pull off substitutions with each other in quick succession to train our coordination and familiarity.

It was a tricky maneuver, since the technique had to be applied from both sides at once. Also, substituting yourself with something that had chakra was extremely difficult - even a non-sentient pig or a febrile old man was at least a few dozen times harder to substitute with forcibly than a dead log. Substitution involved lacing the target with your own chakra as a way to, for lack of a better word, _anchor_ yourself as the technique pulled you through space. Naturally, that was much harder when the target was already seeped with its own chakra, however slight.

At first, I was paired up with Izanami. I had my doubts as to how that would work out, but neither of us actually acknowledged what had passed between us earlier in the slightest. Working with her was a clinical experience; we kept it professional and impersonal, which suited me fine. We agreed on a given set of maneuvers and locations and general timing, and then we simply went ahead and did that.

Ironically, with Izanami the technique worked so smoothly I hardly even noticed I was substituting myself for a living being with its own chakra and not an inert rock. I wasn't sure what that said about Izanami, but I couldn't fault her chakra control. I screwed up only once, slipping off a tree branch after substituting with her had left me with a bad footing. The slightly superior smirk she sent me when I rubbed a bruised calf said it all. I grit my teeth and concentrated harder, barreling stubbornly through the tiredness that plagued me. I didn't screw up again.

When it came turn to pair with Naruto, it was much harder than I'd expected. His chakra control was truly horrendous, at least compared to mine. His preferred way of doing things when in a hurry, it seemed, was to just shunt more chakra at the technique until it aligned to what he wanted. When cooperating, though, such an approach was far more detrimental than anything else.

"I even have trouble doing some of the simpler chakra exercises sometimes," he admitted to me, looking embarrassed and scratching the back of his head. "It's like, you've got scalpels while I'm trying to do surgery with a sledgehammer or something."

"At least it's a very big sledgehammer," I panted, and leaned on a tree to recuperate from our latest attempted switcheroo. By being forced to try and counter-balance the enormous amounts of chakra he was using, I was tiring myself out very quickly.

"I do have an idea though," he said. "Let's try this instead. Just keep standing there and don't do anything."

I raised an eyebrow in inquiry. He quickly formed the five hand-seals for the substitution technique and paused on the last, an aura of faint blue suddenly engulfing him. My hair stood on end; I could feel it from over here - no, wait. His chakra linked to mine as he tried to affect the substitute, and then it swept mine completely aside like a stray leaf in a hurricane before I could even react.

In the blink of an eye, my body was awash with foreign chakra. The burning sensation completely overwhelmed me for a timeless moment, and then it was over and I was somehow on my hands and knees, gasping for breath. There was a faint, buzzing tingling all over and I felt very jittery, as if every single nerve in my entire body had spazzed out at once.

"Woah, you okay?" came Naruto's voice. I looked up at him running over to me and became aware that I was where he'd been standing before.

"Warn me when you do that next time," I gasped, then sat back and took a few deep breaths. "That was pretty overwhelming."

Naruto frowned. "Probably not the best idea, though, if it does that to you."

"You've never tried that with Izanami before?"

He shrugged. "Never had to. We don't have any problem cooperating like this, syncing up chakra."

I frowned, for a second. "Then why is it so hard for us?"

He grinned, letting himself plop down into the grass beside me. "It's probably her cheat codes, you know."

"Her _what_?" I asked, then immediately felt stupid. "Oh."

Her Sharingan's chakra perception _would_ give her a keen knowledge of what the counterpart was doing and how to supplement that and adjust her own technique to fit. The perfect tool for delicate teamwork, handed to her on a silver platter.

Naruto's grin widened, seeing my now sour face. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Those eyes really are scarily useful. I'm glad she's on our side."

"Her brother isn't."

Naruto's grin disappeared. "No, he isn't." He put on a tight smile. "But it's not like we'll ever have to fight _him_, right?"

I frowned at him, then blinked and looked away to hide my reaction. _He didn't mean that. Does he actually _expect_ to meet Uchiha Itachi?_

"She's not the only one born with a lot of advantages, though, is she?" I asked in an absent tone, trying to change the topic while my mind was processing that sudden revelation. I looked back at him, indicating clearly who I was talking about.

"What do you mean?" he asked, a little defensively.

"It's _really_ not normal to be able to throw out the amounts of chakra you do. And you don't tire easily either. What is it, some kind of obscure bloodline limit?"

He opened his mouth. "Uuhhhhmm..." He grinned while scratching the back of his head, his gaze flickering from side to side as if looking for someone to extricate him from me. "Well..."

"So you _can't_ tell me about it," I said, and sighed. "Figures."

"Well..." he said hesitantly. "I'd really rather not."

I frowned. "That makes it sound like it's embarrassing, not like it's a village secret." My lips twitched. "What, it's like ninja hemorrhoids or something?"

He half-snorted, half-chuckled, and held up his hands. "No, no, nothing like that, thank the gods." He paused, then relented. "Well, okay maybe a little bit, only... not totally gross."

My eyes narrowed and I glanced sharply over at Izanami, currently sparring furiously with Kakashi in a blurry taijutsu-only display of speed and acrobatics that went almost too fast to follow.

"She knows," I said.

Naruto said nothing for a while, then sighed. "Yeah, she does."

I looked at him again, and he looked back with a surprisingly annoyed expression, one I'd never seen on him before.

"Look," he said. "Could you not push it? Please?"

I blinked, my mouth continuing on without me before I had a chance to think about it. "Sure. Sorry."

He shrugged. "It's okay." He stood up and offered me a hand. "Come on - let's not let Kakashi see us have too much of a breather."

With a small, absentminded nod of assent, I let him help me up, and we began again. The things Naruto had said had me distracted, though, and in the end we didn't even manage to pull off a proper two-way substitution before the next swap. I was the last person Kakashi pulled over.

Mostly, the session with Kakashi passed with demonstrations, mapping out with him exactly which techniques I knew and how well I could control them. How fast could I prepare a substitution when being distracted? Could I body flicker and retain my old momentum? While leaving behind clone images? And dragging wire? Or excluding certain parts of my gear when I substituted, so I could leave behind nasty surprises without even using my hands? Could I internalize the seal when I body flickered so I didn't have to use my hands, or even just manage to do it with one hand?

And on it went; Kakashi's list of demanded feats was long - most of them I couldn't quite pull off, since I'd never tried before, but there were a few of them that I actually managed to do, when I really took the time to concentrate. Not that that would ever be acceptable in battle, but you could always get faster once you had the basics down.

Once I was breathing heavily from the exertion, Kakashi decided to test my chakra control. He had me try a variation of the common leaf exercise, where instead of using chakra to stick leaves to various parts of my body while doing several things at once, I had to stick sand to the palm of my hands or my forehead or wrists or feet in highly specific patterns like circles or squares and keep it there. Then he wanted me to change the patterns around without losing any grains of sand. Then he upped the amount of patterns I should try to maintain. Then he wanted me to-

"Excuse me?" I asked, sitting on the ground with my legs crossed, tired and sweaty. Sand fell down my face as I lost hold of the latest exercise - trying to keep a small sphere of sand cohesive and balanced on the bridge of my nose. It was getting in my clothes and sandals, chafing, and I was really beginning to get tired of Kakashi's progressively more insane demands. I could feel my chakra coils aching from the day's exertions.

"Try to see if you can make it float apart from your skin," Kakashi said again. "That is, without it actually touching the skin."

For a moment, I said nothing, shooting him a slightly sullen glance. He didn't even seem to notice it. Then, with a heavy sigh, I got to work.

I touched my finger to the ground and stuck a layer of sand to the tip, then held it up before my eyes and frowned at it. Manipulating something as fine and porous as sand was tricky. Sticking a layer of it to my skin was easy enough, and controlling how much it stuck in different places to form patterns was doable, if difficult. Changing the patterns had demanded that I actually use my chakra to push the sand around, delicately, without losing any of it. It was kind of like cradling it in a small envelope of chakra that you then shaped to your needs. This was just the logical extension of that.

The small patch of sand on my finger slowly bunched together in a single clump. I narrowed my eyes, and it took on a slightly more spherical shape, resting on the tip. Then I tried to gently push it off and the entire thing broke apart. I huffed with frustration.

_Unequal pressure_, I told myself. _Concentrate and try again._

Kakashi watched me attentively. It took me four more tries before I had a tiny sphere of sand floating half a centimeter above my finger.

"How far out can you go?" he asked.

I tried a little more, pushing it out slowly. One centimeter, two, three, five, seven... the distance from my finger began to make shaping the chakra close to impossible. At around ten, the sphere broke apart and I released a pent-up breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "No more than that," I said, taking a deep breath and sitting back. "This is tiring."

"That's really pretty impressive," Kakashi said. "I know jounin who can't push that exercise so far."

"My endurance really isn't much to speak of, though," I said, though I had to keep a small smile off of my face.

"It's not a matter of how much force you apply." Kakashi held up a kunai and tapped the tip of it. "But of how you apply it. Your low capacity does cripple your technique selection somewhat, but I," he tapped his forehead protector which hid his Sharingan, "know a _lot_ of techniques. You've more than assuaged my main worry, which is that of how fast you should be able to learn techniques. I think I can have you using some very basic earth techniques reliably in a couple of months."

"Wait, I thought that was supposed to take _years_?"

He shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Sure, that's what they tell the second and third and fourth-graders, and even some of the firsts." His gaze fell on me, a wry glint in his eyes. "But then, that's not us, is it?"

I grinned faintly, a feeling of elation coursing through me. "I guess not."

And then the feeling faded as quickly as it came, as I realized that a few months wasn't quite fast enough to actually help against Izanami. Well... no matter, I supposed. I hadn't counted on it, certainly - I just knew that learning affinities took intense training with your chakra, which was bound to increase my capacity and control which would be useful enough on its own.

If I kept Izanami believing that I was working on an affinity so I could match her, while I was actually concentraing mostly on some other thing that she wouldn't see coming... _maybe_ that could work out. I'd need to sit down, later, and really think this through. When I first stumbled on the idea for the exploding scrolls, after all, it had felt very hopeless too, after the first few dozen failed attempts.

_Besides_, I thought,_ who's to say I can't learn it faster than he thinks I can?_

"If you can get a decent repertoire of earth techniques, achieve the near-perfect control of the clone, body flicker, transformation and substitution techniques that I think you can, and with maybe the slight addition of some basic genjutsu tricks and, of course, some support from your fanciful seal-work, I think you can fill out a very capable support role for our team," Kakashi said. "People always underestimate how valuable the basic techniques are when they become as natural as breathing. It's not the big, splashy techniques that make the ninja, after all-try finding a jounin who hasn't fully mastered those four basic techniques and I can guarantee you that you'll be looking at more graves than anything else."

I thought about that. Not a glorious role, compared to a front-line heavy-hitter like Naruto or a budding taijutsu and genjutsu master like Izanami, not to speak of when you _combined_ the two, but... I could read between the lines of what he'd just said, I thought.

The corner of my lip turned up ever so slightly. "I'll take it."

"Of course you will."

* * *

That evening at home, I sat at my desk at the small workshop in my room, nursing a cup of tea. I'd apologized to dad for not being home on time-apparently I hadn't gotten home until _four_-and I'd just barely avoided an argument with him about the black eye. I'd endured dinner, finished doing the dishes, taken a really long shower, and then, finally, I had gotten to retreat to my room, to be with myself and my thoughts, and, most importanly, with my pen and paper.

I sipped my tea while I tried to make heads and tails of the complete and utter mess my notes had been left in. Kakashi had been much more thorough than I realized at the time - not a single piece of paper had been left unturned and not a single drawer hadn't been rifled through. Nothing was in its proper place, but at least nothing had been broken either - if it had been, I really would have had words with Kakashi.

As it was, it wasn't too much effort to track down a few pieces of blank paper and a pen and clear a small space to work in. I chewed idly on the pen as I stared at the blank piece of paper. It was rare that I wrote anything useful down when I did this, but the blank piece of paper somehow always helped set the thoughts flowing. It wasn't working as well tonight as it usually did, though; the headache hadn't completely passed yet, not even now. The inky and faintly charred smell of my workshop wasn't really helping either, even if I normally found it comforting.

With a sigh, I got up and walked over to open the window and get a breath of the fresh evening air; perhaps that would clear my head a bit. I leaned on the windowsill and peered up at the darkening sky, the day having given way to murky twilight a while ago. A wave of fatigue swept over me as I stood there - I probably really should get a solid night's sleep. A calm breeze ruffled the leaves of the nearby trees and blew gently past me. I stood there for a bit, then closed the window again and rubbed my face tiredly.

Even having just aired out my room, the faint scent of chakra ink still hung in the air. I sighed, giving it up for naught and went back to my desk, picking the pen up and chewing on it. Maybe I wouldn't have any strokes of genius tonight, but it always helped to sit and chew on a problem just before I slept. I would sit here until I'd exhausted the topic as thoroughly as I felt I could, as I'd done so many other times before, and only _then_ would I sleep.

In the end, it took hours before I went to bed.

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

While great progress has been made in the chakra sciences during the past century, any experienced practitioner will tell you that the amount of known mysteries far outstrips the amount of known facts, and that every discovered clue unveils a dozen new questions. Any genuine expert in the field will state that the only thing they know for sure is that they don't know much.

Perhaps the most well-known example is this: It has during the last century become an accepted fact that energy in a closed system is limited, quantifiable and subject to the laws of entropy in almost all cases. Almost, that is, apart from with chakra techniques. This was suggested by the famous experiments performed by Mao Nanyue, who demonstrated that the energy a powerful practitioner receives from the food he eats is not sufficient to provide energy for the techniques he is consistently capable of performing.

Nor is there a sufficient dip in ambient chakra levels to explain this discrepancy as the ninja drawing in energy from his immediate surroundings (rather, the ambient levels of chakra rose considerably during the experiment). Other experiments were also performed, such as studying the effects of fasting on chakra replenishment and total capacity (limited, but still significant).

The only explanation, Mao posited, is that there exists some external, extra-dimensional "source" from which chakra is drawn. This, he states, would also explain how creatures which are simply physical expressions of pure chakra (lesser to greater demons and devas, the tailed beasts which arguably might fit under such qualifications, as well as many others) can possibly exist. Apart from his experiments*, however, there is little proof of this theory and it remains one of the largest open questions in the field of chakra science.

Progress in the field, compared to the other sciences which have seen a boom this past century, has been seen as slow. Undoubtedly, one of the major reasons for this is secrecy. Advanced chakra techniques are primarily used by ninja, samurai and temple monks, all groups which guard the secret workings of their powers jealously, from outsiders and from each other. In a more literal sense than usual, here, knowledge _is_ power.

Another issue is that, perhaps due to the heavily militarized and mysticism-laced nature of the field, there is a lack of a certain _attitude of mind_. While it is premature to call the ninja of today archaic, it is perhaps appropriate to call them excessively practical. A theory is not necessarily given high regard, unless it is easily translated into newer, more efficient ways of waging war on the enemy. Thus, the past century of scientific growth and the emergence of the paradigms of reproducibility and peer review fit ill with the fundamentally antagonistic and suspicious ninja mindset.

* It should be noted that several possible flaws in Mao Nanyue's experiments have been pointed out by later scientists, who, despite the experiments' reproducibility, are reluctant to draw the same conclusions, if any, regarding the nature and origin of chakra, instead opting simply to admit: "We don't know what's happening, or why."

—_Ryuuzaki Leiko, "Chakra Sciences in the new century", Excerpt of Article pp. 5-11, Science Illustrated Magazine Issue 97 - "The World of Chakra"_

* * *

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	5. Spark 5

Being a ninja used to be a prestigious occupation. Parents told children bedtime stories of the exploits of great ninja, and families who discovered that their children had potential were often more than happy to send them to ninja villages and academies to learn the trade.

The Third Ninja War changed that attitude. For the first time in living memory, four of the five great elemental nations engaged in all-out war, involving eighteen smaller nations and _all_ of their respective ninja villages. Military analysts worried that it was only a matter of time before Jinchuuriki were deployed in a real capacity instead of in small, posturing skirmishes, and they were right.

After two years of deadlock, the Land of Earth finally deployed their Jinchuuriki, and the lands of Fire and Lightning quickly followed. Never before had a war destroyed so much so quickly. Over ninety percent of the war's casualties occurred in those last six weeks; hundreds of thousands perished.

The incredible civilian casualties in the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind during those final offensives were the last straw; the public was horrified.

—Takumi Kichirou, "_The History of Ninja_, 3rd Edition," excerpt.

* * *

_The definition of a bad man is often simply that he is the enemy._

* * *

I wet the tip of my brush in a bottle of chakra ink and began to draw the last part of the seal while channeling a steady flow of chakra. The scroll I was working on was the latest of a row of small scrolls lying bundled in front of me. The soft patter of raindrops on my window kept me company through the evening hours after yet another exhausting day of D-ranks followed by hours of grueling training with Kakashi.

Learning to mold elemental chakra was proving difficult. Kakashi said I was progressing even faster than he'd expected, but progress was in the eye of the beholder. I could barely _form_ earth chakra, let alone control it with any precision, and I was getting increasingly frustrated at my lack of concrete progress. My initial enthusiasm had long since faded as the hours of exhausting, mind-numbing practice dragged on.

Normally I didn't even have to _think_ about controlling my chakra, but molding elemental chakra felt deeply uncomfortable and alien—the chakra was _sluggish_. I imagined it was similar to the experience of re-learning to use an injured limb. At least my chakra reserves seemed to be growing, if slowly—the fact that they were doing so at all only underscored the effort involved in learning to manipulate elemental chakra.

The past few weeks had been tiring. I'd had little time to relax; sitting here and working was as close as I got. I spent every minute of my time solving some problem or other—either as part of training, as part of preparing myself for the battle with Izanami—which I regretted more and more every day—or as part of a mission. Despite their reputation, D-ranks could actually be challenging at times. The mission classification system denoted the level of danger, not difficulty, after all, and Kakashi always seemed to pick the hardest he could find.

Someone knocked on my door.

"Come in," I called, and heard them enter.

"Hey, Sakura."

I smiled and looked up. "Hey, Dad."

He smiled back, waved his hand in a loose greeting, then ran it through his wet hair. "It's raining cats and dogs out there!"

"I like it," I shrugged, a smile tugging at my lips, then turned my attention back to my work.

He sat on the edge of my bed, clasped his hands and looked at the row of cardboard boxes sitting next to the wall. "So what are you doing?" he asked, his tone good-humored. "Clearing house?"

I looked at the boxes. There were six of them, containing everything I could think to hide: my few embarrassing attempts at keeping a diary, my first forays into seals as I took the Seal Theory elective and got hooked—homework and speculation (most of which made me squirm to read today), and finally my more organized bundles of notes and test seals and outlines and block-outs full of squiggles and arrows and margin notes. It was amazing how many things you could accumulate over fifteen years of life.

I had roughly sorted everything by date and category. It had taken most of the evening, but I had decided it was well worth it. Even with my time as limited as it was, I just _knew_ I would regret it later if I didn't impose some order now.

"I'm taking a break from training," I said.

"This is a break?" he asked.

"This is a lot easier than the other things I've been working on—here I've already done all the thinking."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Your idea of taking a break is working on the least insanely complex problem you've got?"

"In this case, yes."

A moment of silence passed before he cleared his throat. "No, seriously, what _are_ you doing?"

"I'm hiding my stuff away. Watch."

I quickly drew the last part of the seal, blew on it for a second to make sure the ink was dry, and placed a box square on the seal. I put my hands down on either side of it, set my fingers on different points on the seal, and channeled chakra through in a specific pattern. _Store_.

A good deal of my chakra poured into the seal and the box disappeared with a small pop. A few additional symbols, called storage symbols, drew themselves around the seal's boundary, rendering it in an inert storage state until the _release_ chakra pattern was given.

My dad jumped. "It disappeared!" he exclaimed, staring at the scroll. "It was supposed to disappear, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course it was supposed to disappear. That's a storage seal. Basically, it vanishes stuff, then brings it back when you want it."

"And why would you vanish your stuff?"

"So people can't look at my notes and figure out how some of the things I'm doing work."

He peered down at the remaining boxes, furrowing his brows. "People would really steal your old homework?"

I shrugged. "I'm just being careful…"

"You ninja," he muttered, shaking his head.

I studied the storage symbols. Nobody concretely knew what they _were_, only that they drew themselves in the ink which the rest of the seal was drawn in, and that they seemed to be unique to every storage seal. There was a _way_ you made storage seals, a combination of symbols and connections that was well-known and had few variations, having been perfected long ago, and the storage symbols were simply an integral part of how that worked. Of course, you could always tack on extra bits and pieces, or integrate the seal into a larger array, but the core always followed the same pattern.

Right now, I didn't care what the extra symbols were; I just cared about the fact that they could be broken and repaired, something I'd confirmed with repeated tests. I selected three small, simple parts, put my fingers on them to feel them out, then turned to an open notebook, and wrote down how to reproduce them.

"What are you doing now?" my dad asked.

"Ruining it."

With my finger, I removed the minute traces of chakra in the ink, took another brush, and drew over the entire boundary of storage symbols in normal black ink, so nobody could see their pattern and guess which parts had been ruined by feeling for symbols without chakra. In the margin, I marked the seal as containing box number seven and put that down in the notebook as well.

I leaned back in my chair with satisfaction and gestured at the seal. "There, it's ruined."

My dad stared at it dubiously. "I don't get it."

"It's ruined, and"—I tapped the notebook—"I'm the only person who can repair it. So nobody but me can open it."

After three weeks of on-off musing, this was the best solution I had come up with to secure my notes.

The scheme had its flaws, of course. If I Iost a scroll, I lost its contents, and if I lost the notebook, I would lose everything. Still, it was an acceptable risk; I was going to keep the scrolls in my room, where they wouldn't be more at risk than my notes had been in the first place, and I would be making at least one copy of the notebook and hiding it away.

It would be cumbersome and slow to access my notes, and I wasn't sure how sustainable this really was, whether the seals somehow degraded over time with constant breaking and repair. Obviously, I was going to have to make improvements to the method in the future. Still, this was decent enough for a first try. It would do for now, even if it was only a stopgap measure.

I frowned, peering at the seal. "It's weird, though."

My dad blinked to attention. "Uhm?"

"The seal."

He nodded sagely, peering at it, and said, in deadly serious tones: "That it is."

I sighed with exasperation, ignoring him. "I mean, this shouldn't work. But it does, I tested it."

I picked up the scroll and held it in the air. "The weight's not here, of course, so it's not actually _in_ the scroll. But it's like there's nothing inherently _it_ about the storage symbols either, it's not _in the symbols_ even immaterially, since I can just remake them with different ink. So why…"

I set the scroll back down, narrowed my eyes and peered at it, murmuring: "It's almost as if it's not attached to the seal itself. It's just… free-floating. And that means…"

My train of thought was interrupted by a snore. I frowned and looked at my dad; he was leaning off to one side with his eyes closed. He gave another obnoxiously fake snore.

"_Dad!_" I leaned over to punch him in the shoulder mid-snore, unable to keep myself from grinning despite my frustration—I'd lost the thought, now.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, jumping awake. "I protest my innocence! Violence solves nothing!"

"What are you even _doing_ in here?" I asked. "Shouldn't you—cook, or something? Get in the kitchen."

He winced theatrically. "Ooh, good one. Maybe later, your mom is working late again."

"And I'm _trying_ to!"

He shook his head ruefully. "You're turning into your mother."

"I've always been like this."

"No, you haven't."

"Have so."

We locked gazes for several seconds, until I broke into a helpless smile and looked back down at my desk. "Okay, maybe not."

"Still a little bit left of daddy's girl in there, I see," he said after a small while.

Something in my dad's tone made me frown and look up at him, sitting there in my bed. He was looking at me more seriously, now, the humor for once gone from his face, replaced with a hint of something more melancholy.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I used to think it took forever…" he said quietly. "But I agree now, it's true. Children grow up too quickly. Is it weird, that I already kind of miss you?"

My frown deepened. "I'm right here."

He smiled. "Yeah, but you're not begging me to read you bedtime stories from 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja' any more, or to tell the exciting story about how the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, saved Konoha from the nine-tailed beast!" His lips twitched. "You were smitten; didn't want to hear about anything else."

"That was years ago," I said, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"It never occurred to me to be worried that your childhood hero sacrificed himself in order to save Konoha," he said wryly, shaking his head. "Even though it's obvious in retrospect."

I smiled slightly. "Clearly I'll just have to save it _without_ dying. Will that do?"

Dad chuckled. "You'd settle for nothing less, I suppose." His lips turned up in a lopsided smile. "It used to be that I only needed to prevent Mebuki from working herself to death. You were supposed to be my ally, you know, but now you've joined her side!"

"It's not that bad."

"Is too."

I rolled my eyes. "Dad, you're being sentimental. And silly."

"I think I'm entitled to be."

"And speaking of work"—I gestured at the remaining boxes, feeling a little guilty—"I really should get back to it."

My dad put on a face of stern disapproval and pointed a finger at me. "Sakura, as your father, I order you to forget about work and spend some time with me."

My lips twitched, but I kept my expression under control. "You have no power over me." I picked up my brush and unfurled the scroll a little further to continue with the next storage seal.

There was a small pause.

"Sakura, as your father, I beg you to forget about work and spend some time with me. We'll order sushi."

And _now_ he resorted to bribes. I didn't look up. "I swear, you're like a child sometimes."

"_Somebody_ has to be the child in this relationship, or it wouldn't be the same," he said indignantly. "If it's not you any more…"

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, it occurred to me that I must simply have the weirdest, goofiest dad ever. This was one of those times.

"Sakura," he said firmly when I didn't respond, his tone worried. "You _need_ to relax for a bit. You've got bags under your eyes. You come home every day looking like death warmed over, and I know you don't sleep enough because you sit hunched in here like this far into the night."

"I've got stuff to do," I muttered uncomfortably.

"You're pushing yourself too hard. Just take the rest of the day off, come out and play a few board games with me—you can slaughter me in shogi. We'll order sushi and eat with mom when she comes home, and you can go to bed early. Just tonight. It'll be like old times."

I considered it. It was true; it would have been nice to relax, to take an evening off. But it would also mean that I'd have to do this tomorrow, when I had other plans, which I would then have to push further back, in turn pushing other plans. Or I'd have to drop this and leave all of my notes out in the open.

In the end, it wasn't that difficult a choice. There would always be time for family later, after I'd dealt with everything else on my plate.

"No," I said. "I'm busy."

"I call in your debt to me."

I looked up. "What?"

"I could have chewed you out over not keeping your deal after the graduation ceremony, but I didn't."

My eyes narrowed a little bit and my lips pressed together. I'd apologized for somehow slipping, even if I still had no idea how I'd managed to do it, and nobody had mentioned it for weeks—it was _over_. I was silent for a few seconds. My gaze dropped before I looked up again, crossed my arms, and glowered at my dad.

"_Fine_," I said. "Go ahead. Chew me out."

He blinked. "Excuse me?"

"It's faster. Get it over with."

He peered at me. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"I told you I've got stuff to do. We talk every day, but I really need to get this done _now_, because this is the only time in my schedule to do it. I'm _busy_."

He stared at me for several seconds, looking genuinely surprised and dismayed. I firmly squashed any sense of guilt. I was around all the time, after all—nothing would change that. I just had so many things to be doing right now, and this wasn't _productive_.

Then, finally, my father stood up, his face expressionless, and turned away.

"Fine," he said quietly. "I'll call when there's dinner."

He left the room without another word.

I watched him go with a deep frown. His footsteps receded quickly down the hallway, and then there was nothing but the sound of the rain.

After a moment, I shook my head and turned back to my desk. I brushed a lock of hair out of my face, dipped my brush in the bottle of chakra ink, and continued working.

* * *

"You've already made a mistake! You're in close combat with an Uchiha!"

Ino lunged at me. I parried and retreated under her onslaught, trying desperately to keep from accidentally looking at her face. It wasn't easy fighting an opponent you couldn't even look at; her blows clipped me several times, kicks glancing off where they should have missed, badly executed parries hurting me more than they did her.

_Dammit, this is impossible._

I accepted a direct blow to my shoulder so I could get the time to form a seal and body flicker twenty meters away, to a small glade at the corner of my vision. My hands didn't stop moving—I formed a clone technique mixed with a body flicker, leaving a mirage of me behind looking like she was taking a breather while the real me disappeared into the branches of a tree above. I set my back against the trunk and finished with a transformation technique so it would look like I was just a misshapen but natural part of the tree.

By then, Ino had already moved to attack again, only to disperse my clone into nothingness—I could hear her swear softly. I turned my head to look at her, slowly, so I could keep up the transformation by carefully modifying it on the fly.

"You've gotten faster!" Ino called with a grin, turning slowly in a circle to see if she could spot me in the foliage. "I don't even know how many times you just died there, though."

We were at the Yamanaka clan compound, using their private training area to spar in—it was a small, forested area, maybe a hundred meters a side. I'd persuaded Ino to train here, since it was one of the only places where I was confident Izanami couldn't spy on my preparations for our fight.

Not that what I was doing seemed to be working that well.

"This is kind of cheating, you know!" Ino called. "The Sharingan can see through things like clones and transformations like they were glass."

She was right; I _was_ bending the rules. But I'd gotten what I wanted: a breather, which was something that Ino would never give me while she was pretending to be Izanami. While I was training seriously, she was just having too much fun abusing the handicaps I'd put on myself to simulate a battle with an Uchiha. She took great joy in being as unfair as possible, fighting as dirty as she could. Not that I should actually be complaining; I'd _asked_ her to.

_Okay, let's try again._

I fished out a training kunai—a regular one with blunted edges—with a paper tag and a chakra wire attached and set it in my belt. Then I took out another one with one hand and used my other hand to form half of the seal for the body flicker technique, furrowing my brows in concentration. Forming the correct chakra patterns with only half a hand-seal to help was still difficult (and it was much more so to internalize it completely and do it entirely without hands), but I had the time to do it right.

I threw the kunai at Ino just before I body flickered to another nearby tree, then pulled the tagged kunai from my belt and threw it towards the ground at her feet, holding onto the end of the wire. Ino turned and swatted aside the first kunai with one of her own, then started to turn towards my new position. I shut my eyes firmly and sent a chakra pulse down the wire, detonating the tag. There was a flash of light which was just barely perceptible through my eyelids, accompanied by a sharp, hissing sound.

I jumped clear of the tree and opened my eyes again, landing lightly on all fours and looking at Ino. The kunai I'd thrown was lying on the ground a bit away from her, the remnants of the attached tag still smoking a bit, its burnt edges shining with a faint light. Ino had her hands over her eyes, and was stumbling around.

"I'm blind! I'm blind!" she exclaimed. "I, the mighty Izanami, am felled by the cheapest of tactics! A low-born peasant bested me at my own game! My eyes are useless!"

I stared at her. "Overdoing it a little, aren't you?"

She stopped moving, dropped her hands and grinned at me. "Only a little. I actually did look straight at it." She blinked a few times as if to clear something out of her eyes. "But it does pass quickly."

It wouldn't, hopefully, if I actually used a scroll instead of just a single tag. Still, I'd had trouble making sure she looked at it at the right time, and I'd messed up again by getting into close combat with her. She'd been right before; I'd lost that fight many times over by the time I finally 'won'.

I probably had to be more willing to body flicker a lot to stay out of her range. In a real fight, I wouldn't be able to use transformations and clones to hide and regain the initiative, and I'd fallen for that temptation here, which was a mistake. I held back a sigh of frustration—this was a far cry from the kind of plan that I liked. It was too desperate.

"Let's go again," I suggested.

Ino sighed exasperatedly. "Come on! First chance we get to hang out for three weeks and the only thing you want us to do is beat each other up!"

I frowned. "I _need_ to practice this strategy. Test it, refine it, identify its weaknesses and fix or mitigate them, or, failing that, know that it's useless so I can try to think of something different." I crossed my arms and dryly raised an eyebrow. "What else would I do? Just jump in and improvise? That doesn't sound like a recipe for success, particularly against Izanami."

Ino's lips twitched and she shrugged airily in half-agreement. "Relax. It's gonna work. You put those flash tags in a scroll so they're actually strong enough to be useful, even a Sharingan's _got_ to be affected temporarily when it blows. Add in those fire-on-release storage seals full of howler fireworks you mentioned and she'll be blind _and_ deaf. Even _Izanami_ can't fight like that."

"It _could_ work," I said. "Maybe. _If_ I can stay out of close combat, _and_ the scrolls work against a Sharingan, _and_ I've got enough to get her to look straight at one of them. If everything doesn't go right the first time, I'll have tipped my hand and it won't work. I've only got a week left, and it can easily take a day or two to make a scroll of tags. I've only got three of them, and I still need to make those howler seals."

"Why would you _ever_ agree to a duel with Izanami, anyway?" Ino asked, frowning.

"I, uh, kinda lost my temper." I licked my lips and took a deep breath. "She gets to call me a useless weakling if I lose."

Ino smirked. "Oh, _that_ kind of duel. I see. Out of all the dumbest things you've ever done, it must be…" she frowned. "Well, okay… maybe—no… well, at _least_ top ten."

I bit my lip, trying not to smile at the non-sequitur. "Really? That _I_ did?"

She waved a hand dismissively. "Well, I might have been peripherally involved in some of that."

"_Some_?"

She huffed, her expression amused. "Okay, fine, _all_ of it. So this is the stupidest thing you've ever done _on your own_."

"Now _that_, I can agree with."

Ino looked around the small glade, then up at the sun, then walked over to pick up the two kunai I'd thrown at her. "Come on, let's go do something else," she said. "It's getting late and we've been killing each other over and over since lunch. I'm starving."

_The price of cooperation_, I thought.

"Just… one more go?" I asked. "Please?"

She hesitated, then shot me a dark look. "Fine, one more go. And _then_ we go out and eat and do something fun."

"I had plans for after dinner," I said.

Ino glowered at me. "Oh no you don't. You're not haggling me down to just dinner after half a day spent testing _your_ strategy."

I considered it for a moment. "Okay, but then we go again twice."

"Now you're pushing it."

"Come on. This is important."

Ino frowned thoughtfully for several seconds, before finally nodding and grumbling: "Fine."

* * *

"So how the hell are you even pulling an entirely new kind of tag out of your ass the moment you need it?" Ino asked. "I know you spend more time than is healthy buried in your papers and books, and that you're _good_ at it, but really?"

She punctuated the question by picking up a piece of sushi from the large plate between us with her chopsticks, plopping it into her mouth, and leaning back in her chair to stare at me with an expectant expression. We had an isolated table on the balcony of one of the more exclusive restaurants in downtown Konoha. Ino had secured it simply by virtue of mentioning her name and shooting the head waiter a bright, expectant smile.

It wasn't too long ago that lights had started blinking on around the place as the sun set. The restaurant had rows of paper lanterns that hung from wires above and shone down—equipped with the finest electric bulbs money could buy—coloring the streets and walkways beneath us and the leaves above us a pleasantly cozy orange-red. It felt like the entire city was under one big roof, even though the sky was easily visible.

I'd always enjoyed downtown; the oldest parts of Konoha had a charm that you simply didn't get in the outskirts. This was where the trees had had the longest time to grow, where the mix of old, tiered architecture, money, and time had created a bustling hive of restaurants, bars, and shops. Music was beginning to emerge from all kinds of establishments around us, mixing with the sound of the crowds below and the conversations in the restaurant to form a background murmur that felt oddly lifelike, as if the city itself was alive around us.

"It's not a new kind of tag," I said. "They're an old thing; we still use them for some signal flares, I think. It's basically a juiced up version of the seals we sometimes use for light in lamps, they've just never been powerful enough to be useful in combat."

I shrugged, dipped a piece of sushi into a mix of soy sauce and wasabi, plopped it into my mouth, and immediately picked out another piece with my chopsticks. No sense wasting the opportunity now that it was here—Ino was paying. There was no way _I_ could ever afford a restaurant of this pedigree.

"They weren't powerful enough until now, that is," Ino said.

I thought back to Kakashi's revelation that, at the very least, Konoha's ANBU had already figured out how to time rolls of explosive tags for exactly simultaneous detonations, and kept a frown from crossing my face.

"Yeah…" I said. "Until now." I took another bite of sushi and continued with my mouth still half-full. "I tested a scroll, once, to see if the design worked with the flash tags. It was, uh… pretty wild. And I think I can still improve the design, actually. I've got a few ideas…"

I washed the food down with a sip of sumptuous tea, and sat back with a contented sigh, perusing the plate for what to pick next.

Ino picked up another piece herself, then pointed it at me accusingly, chunks of rice falling off it onto the table. "You know, that's so typically… _you_."

I perked up a bit. "What?"

"It's like this neurosis you have. Life gives you a wall, you'll climb it, mine it, sap it, punch it, kick it, whatever works"—she grinned—"hell, if it came down to it, you'd be slamming your head into it until it broke or _you_ did. And, if by the end there's only half a brick left of the poor wall, you're _still not satisfied_." She waved the piece of sushi at me once more, then wolfed it down. "I mean, if _this_ is your response to someone pissing you off now, I shudder to think what it's going to be in a few _years_. I'm glad I'm on your good side."

I frowned. "Now you're just exaggerating. I think you'd put up a better fight against Izanami than I could. You've got your clan techniques to pull from and a lot more chakra and training than I do."

Ino's clan, the Yamanaka, specialized in mind techniques. Mind control, mind reading, and there were whispers of memory manipulation too, though I didn't know how true _that_ was. Most of them tended to end up with the Interrogation Section, headed by Ino's father. He was a nice man, but just the thought of _anyone_ messing around in my mind or using my body, however temporarily, was enough to send a shiver down my spine.

Ino looked speculative for a moment. "Maybe I could put up a fight, but I don't think I'd have a real chance of winning, even if the fight might look better. With a Sharingan, she would probably break my body control, even if I managed to hit her with it."

I ate a piece of sushi and chewed it thoughtfully.

"How were the C-ranks, anyway?" I asked. Ino had mentioned that her sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, had already taken their team on a few C-ranks.

Ino shrugged. "Fine. Pretty uneventful, really—the only one worth mentioning is an escort mission we did to the Land of Waves, but nothing happened, even though our client was really twitchy. It was pretty boring, actually. The D-ranks here in town can be a lot more fun." She smirked at me. "Helping the police, getting black eyes, you know…"

_How did she even hear about that?_

"Hm," I grunted, not responding to her jab, and took a sip of tea. "Maybe you just got lucky."

She smiled. "_You'd_ say that."

I shrugged, then leaned back in my chair and looked up at the sky. There would have been stars peeking down through the leaves, if there wasn't so much light in Konoha.

"What do you want to do, after we've eaten?" I asked.

"I don't know," Ino said. "You have any ideas?"

"We could go to the top of the Hokage monument. It's been ages since I was up there."

"What would we even _do_ up there?" Ino asked. I smiled; I could almost hear her wrinkling her nose at the idea.

"I don't know. Just… relax. Talk, whatever."

"That sounds very… dull."

I suppressed a small smile. "I guess I'm in a dull mood."

"I thought we could go to a bar or something. Get a drink." Ino's tone turned impish. "Maybe even meet a few guys."

I groaned. "Not _again_…" I let my head fall down to look at her. "Last time was bad enough, thank you."

"You hardly got drunk!" Ino protested. "You just went home when we were finally getting started for real!"

"I—wait, what do you mean?"

Ino smirked. "You don't remember? You said you'd promised _your dad_ that you'd be home early. Honestly, he's nice, but he's such a mother hen. He reminds me of my mother."

I blinked as what she'd just said registered, and sat up a little straighter. "No. I don't remember. I had a hell of a hangover."

Ino looked baffled for a moment, before her expression switched over to offended. "You mean to say that you went to some _other_ party, _without me_? And got so piss drunk you can't even _remember_ it?"

"I…" my voice trailed off, and I stared at her, a shiver running down my spine. "When did I leave?"

"Around… one?"

_And I came home around four._

I froze as the implications of _that_ raced through my head, taking the form of a tiny, accusing voice. _Wasn't it just a little odd? That _you _would have gotten so drunk? And that you came home so late when you recall actually meaning what you'd promised dad…_

Yes. That _was_ odd. It had seemed unlike me, and it had bugged me a bit, but I'd just shrugged and moved on instead of noticing what had bothered me and actually thinking about it.

_But then what—_

And the rest clicked into place.

It _did_ seem odd, now that I thought about it, that Kakashi messed up _all_ of my notes so badly, when he was only looking for the ones on my scrolls, and those were right on the desk. Was I _sure_ that it hadn't been messed up before Kakashi looked around?

No, I had to admit to myself. No, _I wasn't sure_. I had to admit the _possibility_…

"Sakura?" Ino asked, when I didn't answer her. "You okay?"

I looked up at her, feeling dazed, and became aware that my mouth was hanging open. I promptly shut it.

"Uh, yeah…" I said, trying to gather my mind to myself. "I… guess that's what happened. Sorry."

She stared at me for several seconds before she finally smirked and said, "I never knew you had it in you."

"Neither did I," I responded absentmindedly, looking down at the table.

Should I tell her? I didn't know; Ino would raise hell, and I didn't even know whether there was a hell to raise. I could just be paranoid; I could be wrong. And how embarrassing would it be if it turned out that I'd really just stumbled into another party on the way home, seen someone I knew, some old acquaintance, and gone over to talk, and 'just one more drink' had turned into many…

_Maybe_ that had been the case.

I practically felt my heart stop when I realized that… that _maybe_ I should check whether I'd… I'd been…

_No. Just _no. _I was sore in a lot of places, but not like that. Not like that._

"You look a little weird, Sakura," Ino said. "You're sure you're okay?"

"I, uh…" I began, then stopped. "Yeah, I was just thinking about the fight with Izanami again. It kind of struck me how hopeless it feels."

Ino looked skeptical. "It's not like you to worry this much about something. Even _that_ kind of something."

I licked my lips, trying to shift tracks and get my head around the topic at hand quickly. "It's, uh… it's like, she just _gets_ to me, you know? She's born with fancy eyes from her bloodline, has a noble lineage, good chakra, she's been destined for greatness practically from birth—"

Ino arched an eyebrow. "You do know you basically just described _me_, right?"

I paused. "Well… yes, but unlike Izanami, you're not a bitch about it. In fact, you're actually pretty cool."

That brought an amused smile to her lips. "Thanks. Flatterer."

There was a sudden rustle from a tree just off the balcony. I was on my feet an instant before Ino, a kunai drawn, peering into the branches to see if I could spot what had caused the disturbance. I heard a few exclamations behind me—apparently someone else had had a similar reaction inside the restaurant.

"Chill, it's just me," a voice called. A branch shivered slightly, leaves rustling, and Naruto poked his head out through an opening.

My mouth opened and closed a few times, until I finally managed to hiss: "What the _hell_ are you doing here, and why the _hell_ can't you people just use the bloody doors?"

Naruto blinked at my vehement tone, but quickly recovered. "I kinda tried, but the waiters wouldn't let me in. Apparently _I_ can't just waltz into fancy restaurants 'cause of noble blood, or something." He pulled on his shoulders, his lips turning up a bit. "Gits."

"How did you even find me?"

"I'm… a creepy stalker?"

I suppressed a flinch. Behind me, Ino choked back a snort of laughter.

"Naruto…" I said warningly.

His face dropped a bit. "Relax, sheesh, what's up with you tonight?" He scratched the back of his head, messing up his blond hair even more than it already was. "Well, Kakashi said I should go fetch you, so I went to your place, then to Ino's place, and then here."

"Oh," I said tonelessly as I absorbed that, then furrowed my brows and peered at him. "_Why_?"

"We've got a mission."

"Now? We're seriously doing a D-rank _now_?"

Naruto pursed his lips and scratched his ear. "I… don't think it's a D-rank, and I'm not sure Kakashi actually picked it either. _My_ guess is, this is coming down from further up."

"Oh." My gaze flickered aside at Ino, who was looking as surprised as I felt. "What are we doing?"

"We're going to the Fire Court."

I blinked. "The _capital_?"

"Yeah." Naruto grinned. "We have to save a princess."

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

Anything that is done with chakra can be reduced to two simple concepts: information and cost. Information describes the action which is wanted, and the cost is the amount of chakra required to perform that action. Information is in this case analogous to complexity: the more complex or specific an action you wish to perform and the more control you wish to exert, the more information is needed to define it.

However, the measure of a technique's complexity is anything but straightforward. Take the simplest of techniques, the body flicker technique, which requires only one hand-seal and a certain state of mind—an awareness of location and destination. This seems simple, yet the technique both manipulates momentum and stabilizes the air around the moving user so as not to cause injury or noise from the speed, taking a function of the horizontal distance and height traveled in chakra cost.

This complexity is clearly not in the state of mind—no user thinks of moving the air around him when he body flickers. Therefore it must be in the hand-seal which is used to perform the technique. We call the complexity inherent in the hand-seals the _fundamental complexity_ of the technique, and the complexity defined by the user the _imparted complexity_ of the technique.

But this raises the question: where does this fundamental complexity come from?

The only true answer is that we do not know. This enormous hidden complexity, this "language", is not something that has been created; it is something that has been discovered over time, and it seems inherent in the way things fundamentally work. The discovery of more symbols only increases knowledge, not understanding.

Written seals follow the exact same principles, except that they almost completely lack imparted complexity. Only fundamental complexity can be used to define the action of a seal. This strictly limits their uses, but there is also an advantage: a written seal can contain more fundamental complexity than any technique performed with hand-seals. A person can only form so many hand-seals—a written seal can consist of thousands of symbols.

Even a small seal can contain much fundamental complexity due to the vast number of symbols available: there are hundreds of known written symbols, and while they can generally be categorized, and visually similar symbols are more likely to share traits, each has its own unique meaning, its own specific function to perform. It is commonly agreed that each symbol is irreducible: it cannot be reduced to any smaller parts and still make sense.

I believe that there are thousands of such symbols which can be discovered if we derive the patterns that exist and extrapolate further. Right now we are simply fumbling in the dark, skirting the edges of a puzzle we do not understand.

—Namikaze Minato, "_On Seals_" unfinished draft, excerpt of introduction—classified level two by order of the Konoha Ninja Administration

* * *

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	6. Interlude 1 - Start of Darkness - Part 1

**Author's note:** This chapter has been posted in two parts, so if you think it's short, there's another one after this.

**Trigger warning:** The first third of this chapter's first scene might affect some readers negatively. To skip past it, search for "let us talk". For a more explicit definition of the possible triggers, see the very bottom of the chapter.

* * *

_You can't possibly be the person you claim to be, but in the end it doesn't matter. I've made my decision._

* * *

_Eight years ago…_

_April, 1013 AS_

* * *

An old man wiped his sandals on a tuft of grass and continued down the street, barely even remembering to take care where he stepped.

Blood stained the ground dark red. Small rivulets ran through cracks between the street tiles, a vast web of tributaries flowing into small seas of slowly-congealing red. Smoke hung heavy in the air, mixing with the stink of blood and excrement to form a gut-wrenching miasma.

The old man had seen many horrors in his long life, but none quite like this. He walked past a body that lay covered on the ground—one of many—and noticed with a flinch that there wasn't room for an adult beneath the sheet. He bent down, putting a hand on his knee, and reached out a shaking hand to pull aside the sheet and look at the child beneath, to look his failure straight in the eye.

It was a little boy, perhaps five or six years of age. He lay face down, his hand outstretched and pointing down the street. A kunai was lodged in his back, twisted and pushed into the flesh. The old man's mind supplied the unwanted details: the boy had landed on his back when struck by the kunai, rolled over and started crawling away, and then somebody had stabbed a sword through the back of his neck.

"I am sorry," the old man whispered to the child. "I will do better next time."

Every time, he made this promise. Every time, he failed to uphold it. Every time, he swore to try harder. And every time, life inevitably continued before he was ready, and he had to continue with it, lest he fail more of those for whom he was responsible.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of Konoha, put the sheet back in its place and continued down the street. Several more times, he stopped to look at a fallen child—the adults he passed over, or he would never reach his destination. He was kneeling beside a small girl of six or seven when he sensed somebody approaching.

He was impressed that they had managed to leave him alone for so long.

"Lord Hokage," said the tall, lanky man. He bowed, making no comment on the tears in his Hokage's eyes.

"Shikaku," Hiruzen said, standing up. Nara Shikaku was a Jounin Commander, head of the Intelligence division and the Nara clan. Even in the middle of all this, the dark-haired man held himself with a composure that never faded, a presence of mind that never wavered.

"I have reports—"

"What was her name?" Hiruzen looked down at the girl.

Shikaku blinked, then looked down, thoughtful. "Uchiha Amaya. Not of the main line: she was a bastard, but she had the bloodline so they took her in."

"Uchiha Amaya," Hiruzen said slowly, repeating the name. "What do you think she was like?" he almost whispered. "What could she have become?"

Shikaku pulled the cover back over the girl and turned to look at Hiruzen, worry showing in the lines of his face. "You shouldn't do this to yourself."

Hiruzen sighed. "On the contrary, I must."

"Hiruzen," Shikaku said quietly, "if you'd like to wait—"

The Hokage shook his head. "No, let us talk."

* * *

Konoha had been placed on high alert and the city locked down. Thirteen Uchiha who'd been outside the compound had been found dead throughout the city, all assassinated by someone who'd left no trace. Three ANBU had been found dead in a small alley next to the wall that ringed Konoha. It didn't look like there had been much of a fight involved, which spoke highly of the perpetrator's skill, and there was no sign that the seals inlaid in the walls had been bypassed either, which spoke higher still.

The attack showed a humbling degree of forethought and intimate knowledge of Konoha's defenses, but what was most frightening was the sheer scale and audacity of it. Hiruzen could have replicated results like these if he brought the full brunt of ANBU's strength to bear, but that was within his own city. There were very few organizations which might conceivably have the capability to do this, never mind the motivation. Suna and Iwa, the ninja villages of the lands of Wind and Earth, respectively, topped that very short list. They had not forgotten the war, and the Uchiha clan's repository of stolen techniques had been one of Konoha's greatest assets since its founding.

Scouts roamed the areas outside of Konoha, searching for enemies lying in wait, while teams of jounin and ANBU with tracking dogs followed the trails of the attackers. Encoded telegrams raced back and forth between Konoha and the Fire Court in Gotama, keeping the Daimyo informed of the situation and letting Konoha stay abreast of movements along the borders of the Land of Fire. Across the entire country, alerts were sounded. If this was a prelude to invasion, attackers would find the forces of the Land of Fire prepared.

As the Hokage and his commander talked, they walked amid the ruins of the Uchiha compound, and soon they were standing by the remains of the meeting hall. Scores of charred bodies lay within, medic-nin in white smocks walking between them and making notes. Three photographers picked their way through the rubble at the behest of the masked ANBU directing everybody's activities, lugging their large cameras and hoods with them, and occasionally the entire area lit up as one of them took a photograph. Here and there bodies were being loaded onto stretchers and carried away. The commanding ANBU officer paused to shoot a glance at the Hokage and Shikaku, but went on with his business when they didn't acknowledge his presence.

"And so the second of the Great Three falls," Hiruzen murmured. Konoha's greatest clan, and its last remaining founding clan, had taken a mortal blow. There were still Uchiha in the border garrisons, in the capital, and on missions—maybe two dozen in total—but by far most of the clan had been home. More than most people knew. Several Uchiha supposed to be deployed outside the city had been smuggled home during the past few weeks; trouble with the Uchiha had been expected for a while. However, Hiruzen could not see how that connected to… _this_.

"Clans are on the decline," Shikaku commented. "There are major indicators: the decay of the Senju, the sacking of Uzushio, the bloodline purges in the Land of Water, and now this. But there are also lesser indicators across the board. Statistical trends show—"

"Shikaku," Hiruzen cut him off wearily. "Have Intelligence put it in a report."

Shikaku paused. "Yes, Hokage."

"What of the surviving girl, Izanami?"

"Medical cleared the Yamanaka to start on her. They weren't happy about letting anyone into her mind when she's fresh out of intensive care, but we made sure they understood the situation. The Yamanaka were still working when I left fifteen minutes ago. Danzo stayed behind; he'll bring us the updates when they're done."

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. Some things ought not be mentioned aloud in any but the safest of places. Shimura Danzo held the position of Advisor for War, which granted him a seat on the council amid the clans, even during this time of peace. Only a few people in Konoha knew the source of his true power: the vast influence he wielded through his political contacts and informers in Konoha, at the Fire Daimyo's court and internationally, all handled through Root, his network of ninja with a fierce personal loyalty to him and his extremist ideals.

Hiruzen nodded. "Very well. And the boy?"

"He's awake," Shikaku said. "Confused, but he's been taught well. We'll be ready to send him off in response if there are any Jinchuuriki attacks."

Hiruzen shook his head. "He's not ready."

"Then we will do it the old way."

_The old way._ It would mean releasing the Kyuubi where it would cause the most damage to the enemy, or in the path of another tailed beast to counter its advance, and then sitting back and waiting until it had spent itself in mindless rage or driven off its sibling and little Naruto could be retrieved.

Hiruzen fervently prayed that it would not come to that. The villages were always searching for ways to control the tailed beasts once their full power was released, but it was an inexact art. The beasts had strange and twisted minds that didn't easily understand the concept of communication. The seal which Naruto bore represented a new attempt to harness that vast power, but Naruto was still only a small boy; he was still far from learning to use the legacy which his mother and father had left him, and the stresses of being deployed in war might break him before he ever did.

"_She_ would have slapped you for saying that so casually," Hiruzen said.

"But she is dead," Shikaku replied softly. "And we're responsible for more than her son."

There was regret in Shikaku's eyes, and the familiar old pain of friends never to be seen again, but there was no shame. The head of the Nara clan was resolute as always, offering the best advice he could without reserve, regardless of its nature.

The Hokage let out a weary breath and nodded with a pained expression. "If it comes to it, I will give the order to deploy him. And let that be the end of it for now."

He would contemplate war if war happened—there was no sense brooding too much on potential catastrophe when you were faced with a very real and current one.

Shikaku nodded, looking grimly satisfied. He crossed his arms and looked around, observing the comings and goings of the ANBU personnel and medical staff, before his lips settled into a thin, firm line as he felt the presence approaching that Sarutobi had already noted.

"I'll go check up on things," Shikaku said. "Maybe they've found Itachi's body by now."

"I shall keep you updated," Hiruzen said.

Shikaku nodded and left to speak with the commanding ANBU officer in charge.

The Hokage took a moment to steel himself, then turned and said with all the calm courtesy he could muster, "Danzo."

Shimura Danzo stopped two meters away, setting his cane down firmly on the ground. His scarred and ever-bandaged face was impassive, as still as a rock, but Hiruzen sensed an undercurrent of raw shock within his old teammate. Danzo looked shaken to his core, beneath his normal implacable façade.

"The memory read came through?" Hiruzen asked, suppressing a growing sense of dread.

"We need to talk," Danzo rasped.

* * *

The Hokage's office was dark, lit only by the fleeting warmth of a single desk lamp and the cold, scattered rays of moonlight piercing through the closed window drapes. The powerful protective seals engraved in the walls isolated it, making it an eerily quiet place.

Hiruzen walked around his desk as Danzo closed the door behind him, sealing the room. The journey back across Konoha's rooftops had been quick. Danzo had maintained a stoic silence throughout, refusing to speak of the results of the memory read until they'd reached the safety of this office.

"Very well," said Hiruzen, putting his hands on the desk and leaning forward as Danzo approached. "The Uchiha start planning a coup. At the moment when most of them are gathered in the city to prepare, and soon before we ourselves would have acted, they are slaughtered like cattle"—his voice almost broke, remembering the little boy lying face-down on the street—"almost down to the last man, woman and child. What light did Izanami's memories shed on this tragedy?"

Danzo reached into the folds of his robe, drew out a paper and put it down on the desk. "Preliminary report from Interrogation. What they found was disconcerting."

Hiruzen stared at the papers for a moment, then looked up at Danzo, almost afraid to speak. "Wind? Earth?" If they had proof, it would mean war—if not now, then soon. There was no other conceivable response to such a provocation.

Danzo looked down at the paper. "I am not sure. Perhaps not."

"I see," Hiruzen said, though he didn't. The resources required for an operation of this scope and difficulty seemed to preclude anyone else.

"The Yamanaka had to go through more than three days of memories, starting from this afternoon."

"But—" Hiruzen began, then stopped himself, his eyes widening. "Tsukuyomi."

Tsukuyomi was arguably the most powerful genjutsu technique in the world. It forced the victim to experience days of subjective time at the whim of the user and was virtually unbreakable. Hiruzen could count on one hand those who could perform that technique, all Uchiha. There was no way to fake it—not days of memory where there should be only hours.

"Then this was an inside job?" he asked in disbelief. "An _internal_ Uchiha conflict?"

"More likely a traitor for an outside faction." Danzo's lips tightened into a thin line, as if he was reluctant to speak. "It was Itachi."

For a long moment, Hiruzen's brain flatly refused to register what had been said. Eventually, he drew a shaky breath. "You are sure?"

"He cast the Tsukuyomi, making the girl experience his murder spree repeatedly, though he was careful not to include any of the other guilty parties in it. The Yamanaka had to skip much of it, but I believe the repetition lasted for the entire duration of the technique."

"Itachi does not even _have_ the Mangekyou Sharingan!" Hiruzen exclaimed. "The memories of _that_ part must be fake."

"I asked that of Inoichi myself," Danzo said. "He assured me that if anyone tampered with the memories, they were far better than the best of the Yamanaka, especially to do it in such an incredibly short time. The memories must be genuine: Itachi was the traitor—or one of them."

Hiruzen stepped back in shock, horrified, and let himself fall into his chair, his breath leaving him as his shoulders slumped over.

"His own sister," he murmured. "His own clan. It doesn't make sense."

Hiruzen had trusted Itachi. He had been one of his best and most competent ANBU agents—Itachi had warned them of the coup! Everything Hiruzen had ever seen of Itachi suggested that he was loyal, that he wished the best for Konoha, that he was a _good person_. Something must have happened; people did not turn into psychotic mass murderers overnight.

"We still don't know which organization pulled Itachi's strings, of course," Danzo said. "I think it makes the most sense that it was one of the Great Five—most likely Earth or Wind, as you said. Nobody else has the resources."

Hiruzen nodded. No one person could ever have done something like this on their own. Not even legends like Uchiha Madara or Senju Hashirama could have come close to being able.

"Itachi told Izanami something," Danzo said. "Though I cannot be sure it wasn't just to throw off suspicion." Danzo cleared his throat, and quoted, "'There are greater events in motion than the pitiful squabbles of the elemental nations, little sister, and it is time to pick sides.'"

Hiruzen frowned. _Greater events…_

"And there's more," Danzo said.

The Hokage looked up, fighting a bone-deep weariness.

"I got the latest update from the capital before I went to see you," Danzo said. "Three Uchiha have been found dead already throughout the country, and contact has been lost with four mountain outlook posts—the four where Uchiha were stationed. I dispatched orders to confirm the status of all Uchiha and to give each one a heavy and swift escort back to Konoha. However, given the fact that several have already been found dead, I believe it is prudent to consider the possibility that we will find none still alive."

Hiruzen absorbed those words in silence, staring at the table as he considered them. They _needed_ to consider the possibility that the entire Uchiha clan had just been utterly and completely wiped out in just a few hours, if not minutes. Even a major ninja village would have serious difficulties executing an operation of this magnitude in such a precise manner.

It didn't quite seem to register, and he didn't force it to. In a few moments, the Hokage would stand back up, and there would be orders and actions and decisiveness. For now, he simply sat and allowed himself to be a tired old man. He was not the Hokage. He was not in charge of anything. He had no responsibilities.

And then he wrinkled his lips in disgust at himself. He stood up straight and drew himself together. "We will find out who did this, and we will _retaliate_. Meanwhile, we need to consider _why_ somebody went to an enormous effort to wipe out the Uchiha."

"There are too many unknowns; we don't have enough evidence to even suggest a motive, apart from the obvious ones," Danzo said. "The Uchiha have angered many in their history, and their library of techniques has only been growing for the past centuries."

_Until it all burned tonight, and the vault was destroyed._

Hiruzen took a long moment to consider that, then nodded. "That leaves Itachi's actions."

"Why torture his sister and let her live?" Danzo shrugged. "Clearly the man has managed to hide a strong sociopathic streak. Perhaps he simply enjoyed it."

"You didn't know him like I did," Hiruzen said, shaking his head. "He doted on her, and she adored him. Maybe he couldn't bring himself to kill her, but he had to make a display for whomever arranged this."

Danzo snorted. "So he tortured her? There are easier displays of loyalty, Hiruzen. Maybe you didn't know him as well as you thought. Some people enjoy playing such games with those around them. Your errant pupil comes to mind—did you not trust Orochimaru, too, before he betrayed us all? Perhaps you are merely too trusting."

Hiruzen suppressed a flinch and narrowed his eyes at Danzo. "I remind you," he said in a cold voice, "that you were the one in charge of the coup situation because of your… contacts. Perhaps you are indeed right, and I should take more care with whom I trust."

Danzo's face deadened into its usual passive expression and he stood a little straighter. "If the Hokage feels I've done any wrong, I would be happy to offer my resignation."

"Don't play that game with me, Danzo—not tonight." The Hokage shot a dark look at his Advisor for War. "I might even take you up on it."

Danzo stared speculatively at Hiruzen for a time, as if weighing his words. "If I'd had more means, more freedom to maneuver, there's no telling what might've—"

Hiruzen held up a hand. "Don't. I will _not_ give you the legitimacy you want. I won't condone what you do."

Root meant that Danzo was more entrenched in Konoha's secret and dirty dealings than Hiruzen liked. Danzo had positioned himself well over the years, and Hiruzen could not oust him—the political cost would simply be too great. There existed, therefore, an uneasy truce between Root and the Hokage's own secret police, ANBU—maybe even a kind of deranged, symbiotic relationship.

For now.

Anger gleamed in Danzo's eye. "And yet you continue to make use of the sword which you insist is double-edged."

Hiruzen gave Danzo a hard stare. "Maybe one day it will grow too sharp, but for now—"

"Hypocrites always cut themselves sooner or later, Hiruzen," Danzo said, his tone deceptively calm.

They locked gazes for long seconds, before Hiruzen finally broke off and turned away, clasping his hands behind his back. "You may leave, Danzo. Keep me up to date with developments—see that Itachi is caught."

Danzo was quiet for a second and then turned to leave, the clicking of his cane on the wooden floor sounding through the room. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned to look back at Hiruzen. "What will you do with the boy's training, now that an Uchiha may no longer be available to help him interact with the beast?"

"There is still at least one Uchiha available," Hiruzen said with quiet firmness.

Danzo's eyes narrowed thoughtfully for a second, before he snorted to himself, shook his head, and left.

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

The possible triggers are: graphic descriptions of the bloody aftermath of the Uchiha massacre, including dead children.

_Interlude 1 continues next chapter…_


	7. Interlude 1 - Start of Darkness - Part 2

_Present day._

* * *

It was far, far too hot today. Not that it would have been a problem if she hadn't been stuck out in the sun this long. She was quickly learning that life was miserable when you were a rookie police officer in the worst slums of Gotama. She'd always pictured the police as noble, strong officers fighting for the common people against the scum of the world. As it turned out, that was about as far from the truth as it could be.

Well, they did still do those things, only the definition of scum was a lot more fluid than she'd thought and rarely included anybody with fine clothes and deep pockets or, Sage help her, blue blood. Crime, gangs, and yakuza cartels were the words of the game when you grew up in the smoggy industrial slums of the capital—that was why she'd gone into the police, after all—but so far it didn't feel like she was helping much.

_When is that idiot from the Fire Court arriving?_ she thought, wiping her brow.

They were expecting a visitor from the Royal Guard sometime today. There'd been a murder victim carried into the station yesterday that nobody seemed to want to talk about. Apparently it had gotten the attention of the Powers That Be, even though scuttlebutt had it that the identity of the victim hadn't even been established yet. Nobody knew exactly when said Powers would arrive to cart away the body, so she'd been posted out here to make sure there was someone to greet them.

She suspected it was just the chief's idea of a joke—a royal guardsman could find his way into the precinct on his own, surely. But _no_, they wanted to make a good impression, so they made the _pretty_ rookie stand out here in the baking sun for _hours_…

She looked about, confirming that the streets were practically empty—everybody was either inside in this heat or somewhere with more shadow and far away from the local police station—then undid a few more buttons on her stuffy uniform and ruffled her jacket a bit, expelling the stuffy, hot air with a sigh of relief. She was beginning to look downright indecent, but she could spot someone coming and quickly make herself presentable.

A faint sound that was almost like a satisfied chortle echoed through the air. She jumped and spun, looking around, remembering to also check the rooftops and building façades like she'd been taught, but there was no one to be seen anywhere nearby. Then there came a clanging sound from the station's trash cans, and she spun towards them to see that one of the cans had fallen over. She narrowed her eyes, squared her shoulders, then marched over to check it out.

There was nothing to be seen up close, as she peeked between the cans. She closed her eyes, trying to remember the old lessons as well as the more recent touch-ups she'd gone through as a police recruit, to feel her chakra and manipulate it roughly, make it flow through her, to feel if it was being disturbed in any way by genjutsu. She'd always thought she was good at this; certainly she'd been able to feel it most of the times that the genin the instructors had brought in performed a genjutsu on her, when she knew to pay attention.

However, she didn't feel anything at all right now. She opened her eyes and peered around to see nothing again. She was probably just being paranoid. Maybe a scavenging stray dog or cat had been startled by her sudden motion before. She bent over to set the fallen can up straight. As she did so, she thought she heard a very faint whistling sound. She frowned and looked around, but there was still no one.

She stood there for a few more seconds, watching, then shrugged and walked back to her post by the gate.

* * *

A minute later, in the morgue in the basement of the police precinct which had been lucky enough to have such an extraordinarily beautiful young police officer, a lock clicked and a cloaked man stepped inside, pocketing a lockpick. He carefully closed the door behind him, pulled down the hood of his cloak, and smiled to himself.

There were techniques for getting through locked doors, of course, and he was the kind of person who knew those techniques, but they would leave their own trace, a whisper of chakra, and when you dealt with the kind of people he regularly did there was no such thing as being too cautious. Though, of course, there was always time to stop occasionally and… admire the scenery.

He walked over to a row of five slabs, upon which lay three covered bodies, and peeked beneath the first cover. _No_, he thought, walked to the next body, and peeked again. _No._ That left only the third. He pulled back the upper half of the cover and winced.

He tore his gaze away from the dead man's face and studied the rest of the exposed upper body first. The victim had been strong and had callouses from heavy labor. A few old scars, a lewd tattoo that brought forth a smirk, but nothing out of the ordinary. The smell of putrefaction was beginning to set in and the telltale blotches of decay were already starting to appear; he must have been dead for a few days.

Inevitably, the man's gaze returned to the dead man's face… or rather, the complete lack of it. Nothing but bone, sinew and muscle was left, only the eyeballs protruding from an otherwise deeply sunken visage. It was as though the uppermost layers of the face, and everything that gave it shape beneath, had simply been cleanly removed.

He'd hoped, in this specific case, that what he'd heard wasn't true.

Jiraiya, one of Konoha's three Sannin, frowned, pulled the cover back over the man, and left.

* * *

"You old cheat, I haven't seen you in ages!"

Jiraiya put on grin number three, which said that he was very pleased to see the person in front of him. "It's been a while."

Hitoshi Daisuke, of the Daimyo's Royal Guard, responded with a smile which was undoubtedly every bit as genuine as Jiraiya's own, as they sat down on pillows in the man's private quarters. It was opulent by most standards, perhaps slightly more so than you'd expect from a captain of the Guard. Certainly, the privacy seals unobtrusively inscribed on the wall didn't come cheap.

"Tea?" Daisuke inquired.

"No, thank you."

Daisuke nodded and poured a cup for himself. "So here you are again, appearing out of thin air as always. Now, which young lass do you want me to arrange for you to visit undetected? You remember the price, though it's been a while—"

Jiraiya cleared his throat to interrupt the man, vividly recalling some of his earlier escapades in the Fire Court, back when his fame was still fresh.

"Actually, nothing like that," he said, then paused for a moment to give weight to his next words. "I want to see the bodies."

Daisuke's smile vanished. He sat up straighter and set down his cup of tea. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah you do. In fact, I'll bet you're neck deep in whatever internal investigation you've got going on." Jiraiya looked around the richness at display in the room. "A captain these days, aren't you?"

Daisuke studied Jiraiya carefully, reaching up to stroke his immaculately trimmed beard. "I've managed to survive my younger days somehow, like you. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I've just been keeping track of certain people of ill repute"—members of Akatsuki certainly qualified—"when suddenly I stumble into this curious murder down in the Riazi district." Daisuke's eyes flashed with sudden interest, and Jiraiya shrugged. "So I went to check it out, which eventually brought me here."

"I see." Daisuke seemed to weigh his next words carefully. "There are certain things that the Daimyo does not wish known, Jiraiya. It is embarrassing for such events to happen in the midst of his court, especially when we can't be certain there was foul play involved."

"If you don't let me see the bodies I'll just have to break in instead, and it would embarrass you people dreadfully."

Daisuke's lips turned up ever so slightly, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "I believe even you would have trouble doing that. Why not just inquire in an official capacity? I'm sure the commander would grant _you_ access immediately. You're one of the Sannin, nobody says no to you."

"You'd be surprised how many say no—" Jiraiya cut himself off, then shook his head. "As it happens, I'm actually not in the city right now." He fiddled with the hood of his cloak to demonstrate. "Waving the Sannin card tends to attract attention."

Daisuke pursed his lips. "I see."

Jiraiya reached into his pocket and put a bundle of notes on the table between them. "Just let me look at the bodies for five minutes. I'll even tell you what's up if I'm right."

Daisuke let his gaze drop thoughtfully, then raised his cup of tea to his lips and sipped. There was a strict control to it, in the way he touched the cup, brought it in an arc to his lips, and lightly tipped it, every finger placed in exactly the correct position at the correct time. It was that veneer of extraneous culture which you found everywhere amongst the nobility of the Land of Fire these days, seeping in so deeply that even a guardsman unconsciously obeyed the unwritten rules.

Daisuke carefully put down the cup of tea, and then looked up at Jiraiya. "Very well."

* * *

Daisuke led Jiraiya through the palace of the Fire Daimyo. Not the central areas where the Daimyo and his court lived—those were far too closely guarded for even a captain of the Royal Guard to smuggle a person through without attracting attention—but through the outskirts of the vast city-like edifice that housed the government of the Land of Fire, passing through wing after wing, through gardens and passageways and over bridges that spanned small, gurgling creeks, often taking elaborate routes to avoid main thoroughfares where traffic was high. Sometimes they passed guards, but Daisuke would merely nod at them and they would nod back, letting him and Jiraiya pass without trouble.

Eventually, they made their way down into the foundations of the palace where the air was cool and dry. They passed through long corridors, taking many turns before they finally reached a door which Daisuke unlocked with a key he brought forth from a pocket.

"Here they are," Daisuke said and swung open the door.

Jiraiya stepped inside, pulling down the hood of his cloak, and Daisuke followed, closing the door after them. Instantly, Jiraiya wrinkled his nose at the smell. Four bodies were laid out on stone slabs in a row.

"How long?" he asked, walking over to the closest of them.

"The oldest is four days," Daisuke said, indicating the one before Jiraiya. "Soon we will have to announce their deaths and give them to their families for burial."

"Hm." Jiraiya nodded and looked at the body. "So who was he, this one?"

Daisuke frowned. "We don't know, actually. The other two are staff, but this one is unknown to us. It is why we hid the deaths of the others, when they occurred. He was found close to the kitchens."

Jiraiya walked around the body, examining it. He took the man's hand, felt the skin and peered at it. Then he bent down to the man's head, examining it where the jaw met the neck. He nodded and moved on to the next body.

"Okay, this one?"

"A kitchen worker."

Jiraiya examined the man as well, frowning, then moved on to the last body. "And him?"

"He was a scribe for some of the lesser functionaries of the court."

"I see." Jiraiya again went to look at the dead man's hands.

"If I may ask," Daisuke said. "What are you doing?"

"Do these look like the hands of a scribe to you?" Jiraiya asked, holding up the hand.

Daisuke walked closer and bent down to study it. He was silent for several seconds, then said, "No. The callouses are wrong."

Jiraiya waved at the body. "And he's too strong—he did manual work." He walked back to the second body and held up one of its hands. "But these do look like a scribe's, right?"

Again, Daisuke bent to study the hand. He frowned, looking confused. "Yes. I can even see how ink has colored his fingertips, now I'm looking for it. And," he said before Jiraiya could add more, looking at the dead man himself, "he was not a strong man, now you point it out."

Jiraiya went back to the first body, the one whose identity had been unknown. "And this man… I could easily believe that he had been a kitchen worker. Look at his hands, almost scrubbed clean of their ridges."

Daisuke frowned. "I'm afraid I still don't see your point entirely."

"So we have a person with the face of a scribe, but not the body, and we've got a person with the face of a kitchen worker, but the body of a scribe, _and_ a person with the body of a kitchen worker, and a face we don't recognize." Jiraiya sighed, because there could be no doubt any more. "We've also got a man without a face entirely, dead in Riazi district. As you know."

Daisuke's eyes widened. "You're saying that—"

"Imagine a person who could put on faces like you put on clothes. Once you put the pieces together, it's a chain of switches leading straight into the Fire Court."

"Who could do this?"

Jiraiya frowned. "There's only one person who I think could do this, an old acquaintance, and this is right down his alley. I don't know what he's playing at… but I intend to find out."

Jiraiya suppressed a shiver of unease as he looked back at the bodies.

_What are you up to now, Orochimaru?_

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

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	8. Ignition 1

The aristocracy of the Land of Fire is divided into houses, which are in turn divided into landed nobles. Together, the hundreds of noble houses form the Assembly of Lords, which elects Ministers to the Cabinet. There are twelve Ministries, and the Minister of each is responsible for implementing policy as directed by the Daimyo.

Each house holds one standing vote in the Assembly, and can nominate one Lord as a Minister. The Assembly also holds the power to overrule the Daimyo in any matter by a two-thirds majority vote, though this is a rare occurrence with severe consequences for the Daimyo in question.

Often, major blocs of houses with common interests ally, forming parties that can control one or even several ministries at once. Smaller, independent houses often shift allegiance to the parties that can currently offer them the best deals and committee positions, though it is not unknown for smaller houses to be effectively in the pockets of more powerful ones on occasion.

It is important to emphasize that votes for a Minister are standing, not periodically renewed, and can be withdrawn at any time. This has often made for sudden, major shifts in the internal power structure of the government, though as always, the Daimyo remains in control of general policy.

_— Takumi Kichirou, "A Simple History of the Land of Fire", Konoha Academy sixth grade material._

* * *

_Never was anything great achieved without danger._

* * *

"Yeah." Naruto grinned. "We have to save a princess."

I glanced at Ino, not wanting to bail in the middle of dinner.

"Go," she told me. "Though you owe me another night out when you get back."

"Thanks," I said, and followed Naruto from the restaurant. He led me out of the old parts of downtown to the nearest training ground, which was adjacent to the Academy. Kakashi and Izanami were already there, at the edge of the training ground beneath the branches of a large tree, sitting on either side of a wooden table with benches attached.

Izanami slumped over the table, resting her chin on her folded arms while she listened to something Kakashi was saying. She straightened up immediately when she saw us arriving, mumbled a greeting to Naruto as he sat down, then turned to face Kakashi without even acknowledging my presence. I returned the favor and went to lean sideways against the tree without looking her way.

Kakashi shot a glance my way, stood, and moved away from the table to face us. The faint, yellow electric light of the street lamps outside the fence which ringed the training ground illuminated his face. He studied us, looking between Naruto and Izanami sitting together by the table and me.

I crossed my arms, locking them together to keep my hands from fidgeting, and consciously kept my foot from tapping on a root beneath it. I still felt shaken after my conversation with Ino, and my nerves hadn't settled yet.

"There's been a kidnapping," Kakashi said after a few more moments. "From the mission outline, it sounds like negotiations with the kidnappers have already come a long way, since our job is to provide security for the ransom exchange. First, however, we're going to the Fire Court to meet with our client."

Nobody spoke for a second.

"Who's the client?" I asked.

Kakashi looked at me. "The mission client is Lord Minwanabi Masanori, and the victim is his daughter, Kensha."

I blinked. "Isn't that—"

"That's the Minister of Commerce," Izanami cut in, confirming my hazy knowledge of Fire Court politics. "He's richer than _me_. Why is he hiring a team of genin when he could hire a dozen squads of jounin? Or send in the Royal Guard, for that matter?"

"Apparently the kidnappers have refused to meet with more than a single genin team, threatening to kill Kensha if he doesn't comply, and he's agreed to those terms. In fact, Lord Minwanabi has specifically requested our team for this mission, and called in quite a few favors in the Administration to get us assigned."

Minwanabi must have read the newspaper sometime around the graduation, I thought. There'd been dozens of articles mentioning that the Last Uchiha had graduated with the famous Copy Ninja Kakashi as her sensei. For a while, it had been among the hottest topics. _I'd_ even been mentioned occasionally, as I'd discovered when Dad began to read excerpts of articles out loud over breakfast with a huge grin on his face, much to my embarrassment.

Izanami muttered something under her breath about media bloodhounds. Naruto grinned and clapped her on the shoulder. "Cheer up! This means no more D-ranks. Silver linings, remember?"

She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

Naruto looked up at Kakashi. "Hey, what about our—"

"They'd stay back when the time comes, to be sure," Kakashi said. "If it does."

_What?_

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean, 'if'?"

"I didn't pick this mission," Kakashi said. "I don't like it; usually leaders of the rookie teams are given plenty of leeway in the beginning to pick which missions they go on. I have enough pull to get the mission reassigned, although it would look bad."

"Why?" Izanami asked. "Every other first-grade team has done at least one C-rank by now, some of them have done three already, and you've had us doing nothing but D-ranks for _three weeks_."

"I'll admit I'm kinda curious about that, too," Naruto said.

"And me," I added.

Kakashi stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "I don't see a reason to rush into it. We've got plenty of time to make sure your teamwork is solid and work out a few more kinks before we start going out and doing things."

_Huh_, I thought.

"And when exactly were you planning on starting out?" Izanami asked. "You may have all the time in the world, but some of us don't."

Kakashi looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Well?" she asked.

"I'd prefer to wait a month or two yet," said Kakashi.

_A month?_ I thought. _What happens then? Oh._

"_What for?_" Izanami said.

"The chuunin exams," I blurted out. "Konoha is hosting them this year. That's it, isn't it?"

Everybody looked at me and I hesitated for a moment, then continued.

"I just thought—well, maybe that's why you've been acting so oddly, only doing small missions and kind of laying low? We're one of this year's prize teams, and there'd definitely be pressure for us to attend if we'd completed enough C-ranks, or even just a B-rank or two. Just enough to not look like it was nepotism. But we haven't really been doing anything noteworthy at all. You don't want us to attend."

I frowned as an alternative struck me. _Or I guess he could just be really, excessively careful and want to be absolutely sure we can make the cut before we do anything serious. Actually, that sounds a lot more likely._

I looked up to see that Kakashi had narrowed his eye at me and was studying me with a mix of consternation and surprise.

Izanami stood up, staring at Kakashi. "Sakura's _right?_"

"She's not entirely wrong," he admitted.

_Oh,_ I thought. _Lucky guess._

Izanami pointed a finger at Kakashi. "If you've been holding me back when I could've become a chuunin this year—"

"You'd die," Kakashi cut her off.

Izanami stopped, blinking, and my eyebrows rose. Even Kakashi looked surprised at himself, before he rallied.

"Rank isn't the same as ability, Izanami," he said. "I know you want to get strong as fast as possible, but getting promoted won't help. All it would do is increase the risk of you getting assigned away from my tutelage, and I'm the only one in Konoha who can teach you to use your Sharingan."

Izanami began to say something, but Kakashi raised a hand and said, "I met Itachi once, and without my eye, I would've died for sure. He's without a doubt one of the most skilled ninja I've ever met. I was lucky just to survive the encounter."

Izanami looked like she'd bitten down on something sour. "That's no excuse for—"

I barely caught what happened next. One moment, Kakashi was standing casually before us; the next, he had a kunai on Izanami's throat. She flinched back, eyes wide.

Naruto had jumped halfway to his feet before stopping himself. "Shit," he muttered.

"Itachi would rip you apart unless you can at least match me," Kakashi said softly. "And you're far from that."

Izanami swallowed nervously, staying completely still while staring at the kunai.

Kakashi withdrew the kunai, then turned to Naruto. "And if you're thinking of helping her—"

"I am," Naruto said. "But not like you're thinking. I'm not stupid."

That sounded a little odd, even considering his secret ability. Not that I was surprised he'd want to help her—Naruto was like that, and the two were after all practically joined at the hip.

Still, I frowned. _Nobody ever tells_ me _anything._

Kakashi nodded at Naruto. "Good." He looked back at Izanami. "If you contrived to run across Itachi and died because I hadn't trained you enough, I'd find it at least slightly distressing."

Izanami stared silently at Kakashi, still looking a little shocked. Long seconds passed before she finally sat down.

"Fine, I get your point," she grumbled. "But I still don't see why we shouldn't do the mission. Just because we're trying to avoid C-ranks, we shouldn't go out of our way to turn them down when we're literally _assigned_ one."

"I agree with Izanami," I said, much to my own amazement. "I didn't even know doing that was an option, and I don't like how it'd look if we just turned it down like that."

Izanami didn't even acknowledge my comment. Naruto glanced at me, then at Izanami, and his lips twitched as he saw her determined, stone-faced expression. I shot him a dark look, then turned back to Kakashi. He was frowning again, looking between the three of us.

"There's more to the world than what the higher-ups think of you," he said to me. "But don't tell them I said that."

A ghost of a smile traced my lips. "Nevertheless."

"I think it's a slippery slope," Kakashi said. "This opens the door for more assignments like this, when I was hoping we could stay beneath notice for a few more months. If one of you wants me to get the mission reassigned, I will."

He eyed us all. "So?"

"I'm for the mission," Izanami said immediately.

Naruto frowned, glancing aside at Izanami. "Uhm. I don't really care either way, though I don't see why we have to be in such a hurry."

Everybody turned to me. I took a moment to consider the question.

I planned to get out of general mission duty and into a proper division as fast as possible; there were plenty of divisions where you wouldn't get into fights that often. But all that depended on me getting through my first team assignment, and as Kakashi had pointed out, becoming a chuunin was a good way of doing that. The chuunin exams were a good, relatively safe way of becoming a chuunin, though I did nurse doubts regarding my ability to pass the individual component of the exam, even if being on a team with Izanami and Naruto could get me through the group stage.

Besides, being on a team that caused a fuss the moment it got assigned its first C-rank mission probably wouldn't help with any eventual promotions.

_Not really a question, is it_, I thought.

"Yeah," I said. "Let's do this."

Naruto shrugged. "Fine, I'll go with the majority, then."

Kakashi took a deep breath. "Okay. We need to be in the capital in four days, but we can make the trip in three if we make good time. Use tonight to prepare for the mission, gather the things you'll need for at least a week out of Konoha and get a good night's sleep so you're well-rested tomorrow."

He looked pointedly at me as he said the last part. I tried my best to look innocent.

"That's it," Kakashi said. "I'll see you three at the eastern gate, tomorrow, at seven sharp."

"Alright," said Naruto, jumped to his feet, and looked at Izanami. "Race you home?"

"Grow up," she said, standing up. "Also, you'd never win." She body-flickered away.

"Shit," Naruto muttered, then sped off after her. "I'll get you one day, cheat!" his voice echoed, fading into the distance.

A few seconds passed in silence before I turned to look at Kakashi, who was staring after Naruto and Izanami. If I had to ask him about the missing hours… did it have to be now? We'd have plenty of time to converse while we traveled. Then again, I wasn't even sure if I should just ask him outright. He'd mentioned that ANBU were interested in my work, and as far as I could see, they were the most obvious suspects, but he'd reassured me that they'd let him take care of it.

So either ANBU didn't trust Kakashi and had acted without him and let him think he'd sorted it out, or there was a third party at work, separate from Kakashi and ANBU. Or _Kakashi_ was in on it too—I almost shivered as that possibility struck me. I could always hope that I was just imagining the whole thing, and there was nothing to worry about.

It occurred to me that at least the last two possibilities were testable.

"Sensei?" I asked.

Kakashi turned to me. "Hm?"

"I've… I've been going through all of my notes while I worked on solving that problem you pointed out, and I couldn't help but wonder how much you actually saw, when you were looking through them?"

For a moment that was almost too brief to catch, he froze. "I'm under no obligation to answer that question."

"Please?"

I could tell he was smiling now, from the way his mask creased.

"Asking nicely generally doesn't work so well, between ninja. It's too adversarial a profession for that—everybody's out for themselves."

"Let's say I'm just asking my teacher, as a student. I mean, I get what you're saying on general principle, but _you're_ not my enemy, right?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Forgetting my bell test already?"

"Actually, I was just thinking about it."

Again, Kakashi smiled, and while I couldn't put my finger on _why_, he seemed _pleased_.

"I didn't see too much," he said after a moment, shrugging. "What I was looking for was right there on the desk." He looked straight at me, his gaze suddenly more serious, though his tone remained light-hearted. "Did I ever congratulate you on being very perceptive in the way you attack problems, by the way? I don't think I did. Congratulations."

I tried to keep my expression blank while my hair stood on end.

"Uhm, thank you," I said. "Anyway, I was just curious. I should probably get going, start preparing for tomorrow, you know."

Kakashi raised a hand at me in a lazy parting wave, and said, "You do that."

I nodded, took a step back, then another, and then I turned and ran.

* * *

_Kakashi knows._

That thought kept repeating itself while I sat in my room, sealing the last of the things I would need. Arrayed on my bed were a row of small scrolls with seals containing spare clothes, camping supplies, like a small bedroll, and bundles of exploding and flash scrolls, kunai, and shuriken. It was all mostly new, since I'd had to replace everything I'd used in Kakashi's test, using the money I earned off our D-rank missions.

I was bringing everything I thought I might need, since my experiments to create a locking mechanism for storage scrolls had yielded a surplus of empty, regular ones that would only need small modifications to work—I wouldn't have had the time to draw enough seals from scratch to store it all.

I counted myself lucky that I could make my own storage scrolls. They were expensive, even in Konoha, and were difficult enough to learn to make and maintain for extended usage that most people didn't use them without a special reason.

_Kakashi knew, and he didn't tell me._

I looked at the small trap I'd set up at my window. Opening the window would rip a small piece of paper and trigger a weak explosive seal that was right next to a bottle ink that I'd tied up. As far as I could tell, you couldn't see it from the outside, so it _should_ catch anybody entering through the window, if they'd managed to unlock it from outside. The trap wasn't lethal or even particularly dangerous, but it would be impossible to hide the fact that it had triggered, and the unfading ink would hopefully mark any intruder as well. It was worth trying, anyway.

Of course, it wouldn't help if somebody just came in through the rest of the apartment and used the door. I couldn't trap that, or I'd have trouble with my parents, and it wasn't like they'd be able to spot a competent intruder.

I bit my lip and turned my attention back to the seal I was currently tweaking. I finished a minute later and sealed the last package I was bringing: a set of empty paper scrolls, chakra ink, and brushes. I threw the scroll on the bed and sat back with a deep sigh, weary from expending so much chakra by filling so many storage seals in a row.

_Did he_ want _me to figure it out? Or did I just tip him off that I know?_

I looked at my bed, my shoulders sagging. Somehow I didn't think I would get a lot of sleep, tonight, however much I tried. Still, that didn't mean I shouldn't try; I had, after all, been ordered to by my superior.

* * *

I twisted and turned, beating my pillow into shape. It was amazing how much the comfort of your bed depended on your state of mind. Tonight there wasn't a single crease in the sheets that didn't bother me, and not a single creak of wood settling or rustling of branches from outside that failed to instantly make me alert again.

I wasn't sure how much time passed before I began to realize that this was futile. I'd be here for hours before I managed to fall asleep, wasting time I could be doing something useful with.

I cursed under my breath, slipped out of bed, and got dressed again. I snuck out the door and down the hallway past my parent's bedroom, using chakra to spread out my weight so the floor wouldn't creak, through the kitchen to the front hallway, and out the door into the night.

* * *

The smell of flowers always permeated the Yamanaka compound in the summer. Even at night, the cool breeze carried pleasant fragrances from their gardens into the paved street outside. I stood before an open door, my arms crossed.

"I'm afraid I can't let you in this late, Miss Haruno," the servant in the doorway said with an apologetic bow. "Lady Ino is sleeping and said she didn't wish to be disturbed. You may come back in the morning."

She began to close the door so I shoved my foot in the way.

"Come on," I said. "You know me. Just tell her I said it's important."

The servant looked down at my foot, her lips tightening. "I must insist that you remove—"

"Relax, Izumi," a drowsy voice murmured from behind the servant. "It's fine. Go back to bed."

The servant sighed, shot me a baleful look, and retreated. Ino appeared in the doorway, barefoot and dressed in a pretty, flowing nightgown.

"Hey," she said, stifling a yawn with her hand. "What's up?"

"I want to talk."

Ino blinked drowsily, then stepped aside and gestured inside. "Sure, come on in."

I shook my head. "Not inside. Can we just go for a quick walk? Alone?"

She looked down at herself, idly smoothing out her gown. "I'm not really dressed for that."

I hesitated. "Please?"

Ino stopped, then stared at me for a long moment, waking up a bit. Her features settled into a soft frown. "Alright."

* * *

There weren't many tall buildings in the moneyed part of the city, on the hills below the Hokage monument. As the street turned, snaking down towards the city below, we continued onto a gravel path that curved gently along the hill. An old, waist-high cobblestone wall ran along the path, preventing people from accidentally stepping off and tumbling down into the shrubbery. We could see most of downtown Konoha from here, a shimmering sea of lights stretching out before us.

"I knew something was off when you froze like that and went all pale at dinner," Ino said, sitting down on the wall with her back to the city, her arms crossed. She had shrugged on a light cloak and some slippers, and was now regarding me with a worried look. "You're right, if your notes were messed with, that makes the blackout look… very different."

I sat on the wall beside her, dangling my legs and resting my hands in my lap.

"You're sure Kakashi knew?" Ino asked.

"I'm pretty sure, yeah."

"That's messed up."

"I don't really know what to do about it," I admitted. "Or if I even _can_ do anything about it. It's kind of confusing, and scary, and you're the only person I trust enough to ask."

"That's a pretty big question, Sakura," Ino said, looking doubtful. "I'm not even sure what to say."

"Hm." I let my gaze drop to my feet, then felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up again.

"Are you alright, really?" Ino asked. "This is pretty creepy."

I opened my mouth, just about to tell her that, yeah, I was fine really, but I stopped myself and let my shoulders sag.

"It's actually really getting to me," I muttered. "I don't even know what happened."

Ino frowned. "Sakura…"

"But I'm sure the immediate shock will fade quickly," I added briskly. "I mean, it's already been a while, right? Besides, it can only be so bad, and at least I definitely wasn't—"

I stopped short as Ino put an arm around my shoulder, squeezing a bit. I almost protested, then relented with a small smile. For a while, neither of us spoke, just sitting there in calm silence. Even then it wasn't long before my mind was whirring again, considering my options, outlining the facts as I knew them. Though, right that moment, the thoughts had a little less urgency to them.

Eventually, Ino sighed and let me go again.

"Thanks," I muttered after a moment, leaning back up.

Ino smirked. "Sometimes all you need is a hug."

"I'm not a little girl any more."

The smirk turned into a grin. "Big girls need hugs, too—and sleep," she added as I suppressed a yawn. "You've been skimping, I can tell."

"I haven't been skimping."

Ino raised a single eyebrow at me, skewering me with her gaze.

"Okay, I've been skimping," I muttered.

"I didn't say anything earlier today, but if you're going on a mission tomorrow you should _really_ try to get some rest."

I shrugged. "I didn't think I'd get much sleep tonight, actually, so that's why I'm here instead of in my bed." I chewed my lip, for a second. "Your dad heads Interrogation—he's a Jounin Commander. You've really never heard anything about something like this, from him?"

Ino sighed, unsatisfied with my change of topic, then shook her head. "No. He tends to keep work and family separate." She shifted herself on the cobblestone wall, turning to face me. "How about this, though: I'll just ask him."

"Ino, you can't make your _dad_—"

Ino waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, he does whatever I tell him to when I make doe eyes at him. And if that doesn't work, I've got a direct line to Nara Shikaku through Shikamaru, and he's the head of the entire Intelligence division, not just Interrogation—it's his _job_ to know stuff. And I've got other family members as well, if none of that pans out. If it's figure-out-able, I'll figure it out, and then you can go sleep and go on your mission and not have to worry about it, alright?"

I blinked. "Uhm, that's really a lot more than I expected. I just wanted to ask some advice, and—"

"But that's what friends do for each other, right?" Ino said, an amused gleam in her eyes. "That's that whole Will of Fire thing the Hokage was talking about. It's not like you could say you wouldn't be doing the same thing for me if our roles were reversed."

I bit my lip and dropped my gaze, my face burning. "Right… I guess I couldn't."

"Besides," Ino added, "you can just owe me one."

"I'd feel a little better about that," I relented.

Ino extended a hand. "Then it's a deal."

I took it. "Fine, fine, it's a deal."

"Then stop worrying about it, and go home to bed. You're no use to anybody dead."

I grinned. "You just don't give up, do you?"

She punched my shoulder gently. "Learned from the best."

I stood up. "Thanks. I feel a bit better now."

Ino got up as well, brushed off her gown, and shot me a worried look. "You look exhausted, and that's no state to be scooting around the Fire Court in. I visited once with my dad—it's cutthroat. I'm not sure there's anything those people wouldn't do to get ahead in the game. Take care, okay?"

I shrugged wryly. "I can at least promise to try my best."

Ino likewise shrugged, smiling. "I guess that's the best we can hope for."

* * *

I arrived by the eastern gate ten minutes early, loaded up with storage scrolls in the various belts and bags I'd strapped on. Over that, I wore the standard green flak vest we'd all been issued when we became genin. It hadn't seen much wear and tear yet, having only been used for D-ranks and sometimes in spars. I almost felt embarrassed, standing there while older, more experienced ninja with patched, well-worn vests passed through the gate, shooting me the odd sideways glance.

I leaned back against the wall to the side of the gate, adjusted my forehead protector, crossed my arms, and waited. It really was quite a pleasant morning. The sun hadn't been up for long, so it was still pleasantly cool instead of the typical heat of a Land of Fire summer day which awaited us later.

"Kinda looking tired there, Sakura," came Naruto's voice.

I twitched awake, squinting at the source of the voice. Naruto was grinning at me, and beside him stood Izanami, looking around for Kakashi. They were both wearing their green flak vests, and Naruto was sporting a fairly large backpack.

I yawned. "Just got here a bit early, is all."

"I think I'm getting one of Kakashi's tricks," Naruto said. "Every second early is a second wasted. I should adopt that ideal; means I can sleep in more."

Izanami snorted, a smirk playing across her lips.

"Where's Izanami's stuff?" I asked Naruto, already suspecting the answer.

"Naruto's carrying it, obviously," Izanami said without looking. "The idiot says he doesn't get tired, I tell him to prove it."

Naruto pointed a finger at Izanami. "I don't. And I will."

She made a vulpine smile, and shrugged lightly. "I guess we'll see."

"Where's your stuff, anyway?" Naruto asked me.

I patted a bag on my belt. "I'm all scrolled up."

"Smart," said Naruto.

"Risky," said Izanami.

"I can live with a little risk if it means I don't need to lug everything around," I said.

Naruto shrugged and Izanami didn't deign to respond—she was shooting a determined glare out into the crowd. I followed her gaze, looking around us. We were drawing quite a few looks from bypassers. It made sense, I supposed; here stood the Last Uchiha with her teammates, geared up to go on some excitingly heroic mission. I wondered if any of them would be brave enough to ask for her autograph, but anybody who seemed to consider it never really managed to get close before being deflected by Izanami's malevolent aura.

Naruto stared at me as I succumbed to a lengthy yawn. "Kakashi did kinda say we would be traveling fast, yesterday."

"I'll keep up," I said.

Naruto almost looked ready to argue, but then shrugged. Izanami shot me a judgmental look out of the corner of her eye, but didn't say anything.

An awkward silence passed, only interrupted by my occasional yawns and Izanami's grumbling complaints about being stared at all the time. It seemed we had run out of subjects to discuss.

Kakashi arrived right on time. He gave me an inquisitive look, and I put on my best stubborn face. He shook his head a bit, looking amused.

"Everybody ready?" he asked.

"Let's just get a move on, already," Izanami groaned.

Kakashi shot her a long sideways glance. When nobody said anything against, he shrugged.

"Alright. Let's."

* * *

We started running east at an easy pace, following the broad, well-paved road towards Gotama. It ran the whole way to the capital and was heavily traveled. Konoha was in the south of the Land of Fire, whereas Gotama lay closer to the eastern shore, about three hundred kilometers away. Forest surrounded Konoha for more than a hundred kilometers in every direction, nestled into a massive mountain chain forming a northwest pointing V-shape whose southwestern edge bordered up to the Land of Wind, and whose longer northern edge parted most of the Land of Fire into north and south.

On the road, there were other ninja, farmers bringing in their product to Konoha, long wagon trains, and travelers, from those who had nothing but the clothes on their back to nobles carried on litters surrounded by their entourages. We began to pass smaller villages and towns on the road, and it wasn't long before we saw the first logging operation, where hundreds of workers were clearing huge sections of the forest.

Kakashi noticed me goggling. "They're clearing the forest for the railroad between Konoha and Gotama. The wood will be used for its construction."

"That's a lot of wood," I said.

"This is nothing compared to the logging operations in the south."

"Huh."

As we continued, the sounds of sawing kept us company. Men yelled instructions, and cries of "Timber!" occasionally rang out, followed by the thundering crash of a tree. I tried to imagine what kind of operation would make this look like nothing—I was beginning to appreciate just how massive the Land of Fire's industry really was.

We occasionally slowed to catch our breath. By the time the sun stood high in the sky and we paused for lunch, I was dragging my feet. My chakra reserves were already depleted from keeping my legs going. As the day crawled by, I found myself panting constantly, my throat parched and dry with dust. When we finally reached a large town on the border between the forest and the rolling fields that stretched the rest of the way to the capital, I was cursing every lazy time I'd ever skimped on a work-out. Naruto, of course, looked entirely unaffected, and both Izanami and Kakashi were doing well, neither betraying a hint of the bone-deep exhaustion I was feeling.

At least I would be sleeping like a rock tonight.

The setting sun found us searching for a decent inn. Around us, villagers went around with long candlesticks and ladders, lighting oil street lamps. I watched them curiously—I'd never quite comprehended that outside of wealthy cities like Konoha, things like electricity and central gas were still luxuries, though they had been spreading quickly these last few years.

Eventually we found an establishment with both room and decent prices, and Kakashi paid out of the mission allowance. We'd arrived late, so the evening's meal was cold, though at least there was plenty. I wolfed down two portions, paying for the second myself, and then headed off to bed before any of the others. I didn't even complain about the old-style futon I'd been given to sleep on instead of a proper bed—even a floor would feel heavenly.

I laid down, and the next thing I knew, Kakashi was poking me awake.

"Just time for a quick breakfast," he said.

I restrained an impulse to snap at him as he left, and instead forced myself up with a small groan, stretching sore muscles. Breakfast was a quiet affair, and it wasn't long before we were back on the road.

Leaving the forest behind, there was no shade from the baking summer sun. A vast expanse stretched before us, broken only by snaking creeks, irrigation networks, and the occasional village or town. These plains stretched all the way to the capital. Along with the northern provinces, they produced enough food to feed a population of over thirty million people, with plenty to spare for export to places like the Land of Wind. When you added the timber production in the south and minerals from the mountain ranges, it meant the Land of Fire was virtually self-sufficient.

Towards the afternoon we began to see signs of railroad construction, and eventually the road crossed the rails being built. Hundreds of people went about, digging out a trench and filling it with rocks, setting wooden planks, and laying down long steel bars. The government had made a big deal out of this new railroad last year when they started construction, and I'd read plenty of newspaper articles about it. It was one of the first in the country, and would be the longest that had been built so far in the elemental nations.

I noticed a lot of people with unusually dark, golden skin, deep brown eyes, black hair and strange clothes. They were walking with the overseers and calling instructions to the workers with heavy accents, paying special attention to a small group of people crouched over the tracks, all wearing large, blocky helmets. I flinched and had to look away as a blinding, bright light strong enough to hurt my eyes erupted from one of their tools.

We passed close by two of the foreigners, walking together and studying schematics on a paper, speaking in a strange tongue. One was a man, wearing a tied-up bundle of cloth on his head and loose robes with a sash in a style I'd never seen before, the other a woman in a strange but beautiful gold-trimmed tunic, her long, black hair bound elaborately with beads and metal rings.

"Foreigners," Kakashi told me when we'd passed them. "Hired from across the eastern sea to help with the construction of the railway."

Naruto looked around for what we were talking about. His gaze quickly found some and his eyebrows lifted. "Huh."

"I hadn't heard," I huffed while we ran on. "I thought we just had restricted trade with them."

"It's not popular in the Court, so the newspapers didn't carry it," Kakashi said. "It's becoming obvious that the railway is going to be a lot better with the easterners' help and knowledge. Our client, Minwanabi, must be ecstatic; it's _his_ pet project."

"You know a lot about this," Izanami commented.

"Konoha keeps a close eye on happenings in the Fire Court. It's always good to stay on top of things. You probably should, too, now you've graduated and taken your seat on the Council."

"Who said I wasn't on top of things?" Izanami said.

I eyed Izanami, surprised. _She's on the Council?_

It made sense, I supposed, that Konoha still extended the single remnant of the Uchiha clan such a courtesy. She couldn't have been attending much, though—she hadn't missed a D-rank or training session yet. Perhaps she didn't care that much. Politics, I had to admit, had never interested me, and I could imagine the same being true for her.

Conversation dried out as we continued on. There was still quite a way to the nearest town with a train station where we'd be spending the night. When we finally arrived, we found a traveler's inn, and ate dinner in exhausted silence. Even Naruto looked a little weary when we all crawled into our beds.

* * *

"And not an ounce of chakra in this thing?" Naruto muttered as the train slowly gathered speed, carrying us towards Gotama. "Damn."

I had to give it to him, the train was more impressive than I'd expected. Granted, the steam engine at the front of it was massive, but it still didn't feel quite right to me that it was able to pull such an enormous weight behind it, even though I knew the general principles involved. It ran without the slightest bit of chakra involved anywhere. Just water and heat, and nothing else.

"It's pretty awesome," I conceded, then sat down and made myself comfortable, leaning into the corner I'd managed to grab in the flat open-air carriage we were traveling in. A C-rank mission budget didn't pay for better tickets, or Kakashi was just being miserly—either way, I didn't care. This corner was nice enough. I spent most of the trip dozing, and actually felt somewhat refreshed when Naruto prodded me awake as we trundled into Gotama.

Gotama itself was the largest city in the elemental nations. Its key position at the fork of two major rivers, one of which passed through the Land of Fire and out into the northern seas meant that if you had goods from the east that needed to move west, or the other way around, odds were that at some point on the journey they would pass beneath the eyes of Gotama's customs inspectors.

I was surprised at how flat everything was, being used to the tall buildings of Konoha's central areas that had been helped along by the First Hokage's wood style. Here, there weren't many buildings taller than three stories, and everything looked dirty—it was like dust hung in the air. Beggars sat in the dirt on every street corner while merchants hawked their wares not two meters away. Nobles carried on curtained litters parted the crowd before them, surrounded by stone-faced guards in polished, well-adorned armor.

And then there were the smells—food, spices, people, animals—everything that a city of millions could bring to bear. There was so much going on around us that I was almost twisting my head off trying to get a look at everything before we passed it.

Eventually, we crossed one of the many bridges that led to the Golden City, the Daimyo's massive palace, lying at the intersection of the two rivers that parted Gotama. The palace was a maze of interlocking buildings, halls and gardens, and its famous golden roofs gleamed in the midday sun.

_Is that real gold?_ I wondered. _Or just some kind of paint?_ I didn't ask, for fear of suggesting they might use paint, just in case it was, in fact, real gold.

Just before we reached the other side of the bridge, we passed beneath a tall torii prayer gate, and I felt a tingling sensation on my skin, like that of passing through the gates of Konoha. Had I been wearing any transformation technique, or performing any other outward manipulation that depended on chakra, it would just have been disrupted. I could spot more than a dozen men armored in the gold and silver of the Royal Guard without even turning my head. I shivered, suddenly glad that I had good reason to be here.

The Royal Guard weren't ninja, but a lifetime of dedicated training in the old samurai arts of chakra muscle enhancement more than compensated for a general lack of techniques—the way they used chakra was simply _different_, an elite version of the basic enhancement techniques taught to every conscript and ninja. I doubted I could take a Royal Guard in battle, and I thought even Kakashi would have trouble with a squad of them working in concert.

As we stepped off the bridge, we were stopped by a guard, his hand resting on the pommel of his sheathed katana.

"State your business," he said.

"Team Seven of Konoha," Kakashi said. "The Minister of Commerce is expecting us."

"One moment," the guardsman said.

He went to exchange a few words with his superior, a man with an ornate, plumed helmet. A few moments later, a messenger ran off. The guard we'd talked to didn't return to us immediately, so we stayed put. Guards around us shot us occasional looks, but nobody addressed us directly—there were a few other people standing around like us, waiting, while others passed by waving papers at the guards, or even just striding past as the guards nodded in recognition.

It wasn't too long before a man arrived and hurried towards us down the steps of the entrance. He said a few words to the guard captain, who nodded, then walked to us and bowed from the waist with his hands clasped in front of him.

"Are you well, honored guests?" he intoned.

Kakashi blinked, then made a small bow from the waist. "We are well, honored host."

The man's expression flashed briefly in surprised consternation, which quickly turned into a polite smile. "I am Hotaka, the majordomo of House Minwanabi, and I apologize for the wait. I will take you to Lord Minwanabi now, if you please."

"We follow in your footsteps," Kakashi said.

This time, Hotaka looked less surprised. He smiled warmly, though somehow the warmth didn't quite reach his eyes, bowed deeply again, then turned and walked away.

"What just happened?" Naruto whispered under his breath to Izanami as we trailed after Hotaka.

Izanami leaned in towards Naruto. "Hotaka showed us great respect by initiating the ritual greeting, probably because he didn't expect us to know the reply, so we would bring dishonor to ourselves by breaching protocol. Kakashi one-upped him when he did know the reply, then made a double-edged peace offering by saying we'd follow in Hotaka's footsteps, which means we trust him implicitly by following him, but also has the undertone of him having to trust us, since we're behind him where his back is open to us. Probably, it was a test—Hotaka wanted to know just where he had us, and Kakashi told him very exactly. So it's all good."

_What._

There was a brief pause.

"What," said Naruto.

Izanami arched an eyebrow at him, the corner of her lip rising. "You mean you weren't taught this stupid shit when you were five?"

Kakashi glanced back at us with a wry gaze. "Hush—whispering in public is considered impolite and amateurish."

I frowned, but held my tongue. Naruto, though, apparently couldn't resist.

"Why?" he whispered in Izanami's direction.

"Impolite, because we could be scheming against the people around us, and amateurish, because we're openly displaying that fact," she whispered, then drew a finger across her throat, her eyes gleaming with amusement at Naruto's baffled expression.

Even I had to smile a little, though I had to agree with Naruto; that was downright insane.

We continued onward in renewed silence as Hotaka led us through wing after wing of the palace. It was beautiful: entire walls of wood were painted in intricate detail, depicting a multitude of scenes, from goddesses meditating in tranquil gardens to renditions of old battles. There were small lotus ponds and rock gardens off the hallways, and occasionally we'd pass over a small bridge across a gurgling stream a few meters beneath us; even down there I spotted well-tended paths and gardens. Everyone was dressed so immaculately that I felt like a barbarian intruder who definitely didn't belong in here, with my utilitarian garb and straps and bags of scrolls, dirty from the dust of the road.

Sometimes, I felt that tingling on my skin again, and noticed an awful lot of guards about. We passed through several such security points before we finally reached a sliding door where two men armored in non-royal colors—green and blue—stood guard. They pulled aside the door, wordlessly, and we entered the area behind it, passing through a few corridors before turning into an empty room. A table of refreshments had been set out, surrounded by traditional sitting pillows.

Hotaka turned to us and bowed. "Lord Minwanabi is currently in session with the Cabinet and the Daimyo. He will join you as soon as he is able."

"You honor us with your hospitality," said Kakashi.

Hotaka left and shut the screen door behind him.

Naruto set his backpack down in a corner, walked over to the table, plopped himself down on a pillow, and surveyed the food. "Sweet," he muttered to himself, picked out a slice of iced melon and started munching on it.

"Uhm, Naruto," I began. "I'm not sure we're supposed to actually…" I petered off, looking hesitantly at Kakashi and Izanami.

Kakashi was closely studying an inscription on a wooden support pillar, and Izanami was turning where she stood, surveying the room and its delicate decorations. "Not bad…" she muttered. "Not bad at all."

When none of them said anything, I shrugged, went over to Naruto, and sat down, though I didn't really feel that hungry. It was sinking in just how high up the social ladder this really was. A cabinet member like the Minister of Commerce was literally one step beneath the Daimyo in terms of rank and power. There were probably more money in the furnishings here than I'd ever managed to spend in my life, and then some.

"Just… who is this Minister we're meeting, anyway?" I asked in a low voice, a little embarrassed to be asking.

"Really?" said Izanami. "Do you even read the newspapers?"

"I don't," commented Naruto, his mouth full. "Boring as shit."

In truth, I agreed with Naruto. Most of what I got, I got from my dad's comments during breakfast.

"Not the domestic politics sections, no," I said, a little defensively.

Izanami rolled her eyes, saying nothing.

"Minwanabi Masanori's a radical progressive," Kakashi said after a moment from where he stood, his finger tracing the inscription. "He's been making waves talking about reform ever since he ascended to the lordship of House Minwanabi a few years ago when his father died. His house is the force behind the Blue Lotus party, which sits on a small but significant number of committees, and most importantly on the ministry of Commerce—it makes him awfully hard to dislodge for the stodgier types in the Court, since he's got them where it counts: by their purses. And he's probably one of the richest people in the nation, too, on top of that." Kakashi's tone took on a cheery note. "He's not particularly well-liked in the Court, really, but he's very popular with the common folk."

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Those who've heard of him, anyway."

"I _have_ heard the name before," I said, fighting down an embarrassed blush. "I just didn't know that much about him."

"I'd hope this goes without saying," Kakashi said, "but when he arrives, you three really shouldn't speak unless spoken to first. I'll do the talking."

I nodded meekly. "Alright."

Naruto grumbled assent, and Izanami shrugged.

Soon, I heard several voices come closer. We all turned to look at the door, and I scrambled to my feet, quickly followed by Naruto at my side.

"—Oh, nonsense, Hotaka. Go tell Kanazawai that I'm not building that stupid bridge just for the Daimyo's bloody convenience, and that's final. Maybe I can't keep the procession off my lands, but I'll be damned if I spend millions of Ryo on a useless river crossing when he can just take an extra day going the long way around through the ravine."

The door slid aside to reveal Hotaka, bowing deeply to a man who had to be Minwanabi Masanori, the two of them surrounded by a squad of green-and-blue clad guards and accompanied by another man in finery who stood slightly off to the side. Minwanabi was a tall, hawkish young man, dressed in magnificent green and blue robes of embroidered silk. Green and blue had to be the Minwanabi house colors, from the repetition of the theme.

"As you command, my lord," Hotaka said, and backed away out of sight, his steps quickly disappearing down the corridor.

Several of the guards slipped into the room with their hands on their pommels and eyed us suspiciously, walking around the room and peering into every corner under the watchful eyes of a plumed captain. While they were still halfway through the process, Minwanabi turned from looking after Hotaka and strode inside. The guard captain jumped and stepped aside just in time.

"I hope you didn't wait too long," Minwanabi said to Kakashi.

Kakashi didn't say anything for a moment, as if that wasn't quite what he had expected to hear, then made a deep bow from the waist. "The wait was insignificant."

"Good," said Minwanabi with a smile, then sat down on a pillow across the table from me and Naruto.

The guard captain cleared his throat, and stood straight as a rod. "The area is secure, my lord."

Minwanabi paused halfway through reaching for a platter of spiced apple slices to smile briefly at the guard captain and say, "Thank you, captain."

_Well, he seems… different._

The captain nodded stiffly, walked outside and slid the door closed behind him, his silhouette visible as he took up a guard position. Unlike moments before, I couldn't even hear the faintest whisper of his boots on the floor.

_Silencing seals_, I thought, glancing at the markings Kakashi had studied before, now recognizing them for what they were. _Inscribed into wood and made so they can be turned on and off. That's expensive—of course._

The remaining guards distributed themselves to the corners of the room, the transition happening so smoothly that I hardly even noticed it.

"Let us dispense with the formalities," Minwanabi said. "You're not from around here, so there's no need to waste energy on pretense." He gestured at the pillows. "Please, do sit down."

After a moment's hesitation, I sat back down, joined moments later by Naruto, Izanami and Kakashi, and the unnamed man, who sat down beside Minwanabi. I almost jumped as a frosty glass of juice materialized at my elbow, and looked up to spot a woman walking around the table, serving drinks in the most precise way I'd ever seen. As she reached Minwanabi last—there had to be some arcane meaning behind that—he took the glass from her hands as she made to set it down, and took a sip. The woman blinked and hesitated for a moment before she retreated to hover unobtrusively in the corner, looking mildly scandalized.

"I'm honored to meet you, Copy Ninja Kakashi," Minwanabi said as he put down his glass. "And you, Lady Izanami. Your reputation precedes you."

Both Kakashi and Izanami made bows, Izanami's somewhat shallower than Kakashi's.

Minwanabi turned to Naruto. "And I don't believe I know your name."

"It's Naruto," said Naruto, his tone casual.

Minwanabi nodded, then turned to me. "And you?"

"H—Haruno Sakura," I said, and carefully bowed as much as Kakashi had.

"This is Tadao, one of my advisers," Minwanabi said, indicating the man by his side, who made a bow roughly equal to my own.

"It's a great pleasure to meet you," Tadao said, his gaze lingering on Kakashi, and then on Izanami, a faint curiosity in his eyes.

"I do apologize for the delay," Minwanabi said. "The Daimyo convened a Cabinet meeting at short notice, no doubt hoping I would miss the memo. That silly anniversary parade-cum-pilgrimage has the entire Court thrown into disarray."

I perked up a bit. For once, something I'd heard about—the Daimyo was throwing a massive parade in the city to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Land of Fire. This would be followed by a procession where he traveled with his entourage to honor his ancestors at the site of the signing of the treaty that had formalized the existence of the nation.

Tadao cleared his throat softly.

"But that's of course not why we're here," Minwanabi said, shooting a quick glance at Tadao. "We're here because I've hired you to help me with a serious issue."

"A kidnapping," Kakashi said.

Minwanabi winced, his posture visibly deflating. "Yes. My daughter, Kensha, disappeared a week ago on her way west to the ancestral Minwanabi estate. Five days ago, I was contacted by people who knew things that only Kensha could have told them. Their terms were simple: I would pay a considerable fee for her return, or she would die. Of the rest of her escort, I was told nothing. I agreed to the terms, of course, and when I heard that Hatake Kakashi's team was available, there was no question whom I should hire."

"May I ask what the fee is?" Kakashi inquired lightly.

"Twenty million ryo."

I choked on my juice.

"You seem to have agreed quite readily," Kakashi said.

Minwanabi made a shooing motion with his hand. "Kensha is family; money is of little consequence." He smiled wanly. "Truly, they could have asked for far more, and my answer would have been the same."

"I'm sorry if my questions seem impolite," Kakashi said, "but isn't this a matter for the Royal Guard? Since you are a member of the Cabinet, it seems they would get involved."

Minwanabi's gaze fell to the table, his expression growing closed. For a long, tense moment, I thought Kakashi had somehow blundered and managed to offend one of the most powerful people in the nation. Then Minwanabi raised his gaze again, and glanced around at the guards.

"Leave us," he said.

They left in stoic silence, the woman who'd served us trailing behind and closing the door after them.

Minwanabi was silent for a small while, before he spoke. "Kensha is not my true daughter. She is a bastard born of the Daimyo and my sister. This is no secret—it is well known at Court, though not spoken of much. Many consider my adoption of Kensha a skillful move in the game, subtly shaming the Daimyo by bringing to light his illicit activities while at the same time having an excellent excuse to do so, as if I could have had no other reason to adopt my niece after my sister died. That, along with my, as the Daimyo puts it, preposterous clamoring for political reform, means that there exists a less than warm relationship between me and his royal highness."

Minwanabi smiled bitterly. "So you see, the reason that the Royal Guard are not handling this is that I do not trust them to. I would use my own guard, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm not sure I can trust them either. The contingent of guards I sent with Kensha should have been enough to prevent this from happening."

There was a silence as we absorbed that.

"The mission documents were vague," Kakashi finally said, his tone delicate. "I don't suppose you know yet who did it?"

I frowned. Why would Kakashi ask that, now? Unless…

_Ah_, I thought. _The kidnappers didn't ask for as high a ransom as they could have. From the sound of it, they didn't even haggle. And if they aren't motivated by money, that leaves only… politics._

Minwanabi shook his head in reply to Kakashi, though his calm, measured gaze as he met Kakashi's eyes spoke volumes. "I couldn't possibly give you a name."

"I understand perfectly," Kakashi said.

"Good." Minwanabi straightened up, putting his hands flat on the table. "The task itself is very simple. You are to escort Tadao to the agreed-upon rendezvous, and ensure that he can make the exchange for Kensha safely." His gaze hardened. "Should things go awry, I expect you to protect Kensha to the best of your abilities, and to exact due retribution upon the guilty party. You're a genin team, if an unusual one, so I can safely say that I have followed the agreement to the letter."

His eyes narrowed, his lips tightening as he looked the three of us over with a more critical eye, as if it only then occurred to him that we might very well end up fighting to protect his daughter's life. It occurred to me that he probably knew this was a bad deal for him, but was going along with it anyway in the hopes of getting his daughter back. He was trusting us to do that for him, trusting Kakashi's reputation.

I swallowed nervously at the sudden feeling of responsibility the thought brought with it. _People will die if we screw up. But I suppose that was always on the table._

"That's all there is to say, in the end," Minwanabi said, suddenly sounding weary. "Tadao can fill you in on the rest of the details. Help me get her back."

Kakashi nodded. "We will do our very best."

Minwanabi nodded, his expression pensive. "Then you may leave."

We all stood up, and Tadao walked around the table to join us, smiling calmly. In fact, not once during the entire conversation had I seen him look anything but confident and reserved.

"Don't worry," he said, smiling as if everything would be right in the world. "We'll make sure everything turns out for the best."

* * *

**CHAPTER END**

* * *

As a general rule, reviews make authors happy. As a specific rule, reviews make _me_ ecstatic. Click that button. Write those words on your mind. You know you want to. This is your last chance before you delay, and vacillate, and forget all about doing it at some later point.

**Author's note:** The Naruto wiki states that the buying power of 1 ryo is roughly that of 10 japanese yen, so 20 million ryo is about equal to $1.9 million.

A map of the whole world is in the works, but don't count on seeing it any time soon. (So far, there's only a glorious rendition drawn over a basic canon map in Paint.) If any of you would like to help with that and are experienced with drawing, especially maps or the like, please contact me and we'll talk about it.

**Current story status (updated April 8th):** The story has begun picking up the pace again, recently. The next arc (Ignition) is currently being written in full, and once complete, I shall post all of the chapters in relatively quick succession. I am counting on (but do not promise) finishing the next arc sometime during the summer, 2015.

This is probably the last time this end-of-chapter note will change, as In Fire Forged now has a blog, which can be found at infireforged dot wordpress dot com. There you will be able to find things like progress updates on the story and various lore and world-building posts reminiscent of the in character lore blurbs that are sometimes at the beginnings and ends of the chapters.


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